(LUSAKATIMES) Hunger hits Petauke district

Hunger hits Petauke district
January 3, 2009

A traditional ruler in Petauke has said a number of people in the district are going out without food.

Senior chief Kalindawalo Mndikula chitete told ZANIS in an interview yesterday that most Petauke residents including his subjects, were hungry adding that the situation on the ground was bad.

The Senior chief said people were surviving on pumpkin leaves adding that the few with maize were managing on a meal per day.

He attributed the hunger situation in most parts of Petauke to last year’s uneven rain pattern.

He has since appealed to Government to come to the rescue of the people adding that the situation now was in the emergence stage.

Meanwhile Petauke district Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit committee ( PDDMMUC) has reported receipt of one hundred metric tones of maize to distribution as relief food.

Petauke district commissioner David Tembo, who is also the PDDMMUC chairman said the unit had received maize to add to the first consignment of hundred metric tones which had since been distributed to all three constituencies.

He said the latest consignment was to also be distributed to the three constituencies but bearing in mind those who did not benefit from the earlier consignment.

Last year the agriculture department in Petauke indicate that thirty percent of people in the district would be hit with hunger by the end of September 2008.

ZANIS/BM/EML/ENDS/MM