Chief Ndungu accuses govt of not taking floods seriously

Chief Ndungu accuses govt of not taking floods seriously
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Sun 07 Mar. 2010, 09:20 CAT

CHIEF Ndungu of the Luvale people of Zambezi District in North Western Province has accused the government of not taking the flood situation in his area seriously. In an interview yesterday, chief Ndungu expressed sadness that no senior government official had been to his area to assess the floods.

“During the reign of the late president Levy Mwanawasa when we had floods here, the president himself came to assess the situation but we are very sad as a people that no senior government official has come now. Government is not taking the situation seriously,” chief Ndungu complained.

He added that his subjects were not only unhappy but they also felt sidelined by the government.
Chief Ndungu said in times of disasters, the government could easily find resources by appealing for assistance from cooperating partners but this had not been done.

He said about 1,000 houses had collapsed as a result of the floods and nothing tangible had come up despite numerous appeals for tents.

“People are spending their nights in the cold. When it comes to relief food, only 600 bags of maize ferried by speedboats have arrived. Those are not enough to cater for the number of people in need,” chief Ndungu said.

He said when he returned from this year’s Nc’wala ceremony, he found most parts of his palace at Mize submerged in water.

And chief Ndungu observed that if the government was serious, it could build permanent canals to prevent water from going to his palace in times of heavy rains.

Chief Ndungu explained that the removal of logs that were initially erected to prevent water from going to his palace had created a path for water and thereby made it prone to floods.