Full circle
on Rob Wootton (Zambia), 28/Jan/2011 10:09, 34 days ago
The rains have been earlier and heavier this year so it was only a case of when there would be a call from one of the rural communities in Mazabuka requesting disaster relief support. Last year we did not visit Manyoonyo until March but on Friday the Chairperson of the community called the District Commissioner asking for assistance. A team of five of us jumped into a 4x4 from the Department of Agriculture (picking up last year’s wellington boots) and after almost two hours of driving along roads which went from being rutted and bumpy at first, then slippery and muddy, to eventually just huge puddles of water and mud, we arrived in Manyoonyo.Despite the heavy rains this year the flooding so far appears to have been the result of man’s own making. Sometime in 2010 a team of engineers starting building a main and a number of minor canals – the job has so far not been completed, nor did the team consider what impact these new canals might have when it rains. The main canal is acting like a dam, where previously water could disperse over the land now a large lake has appeared because the water has nowhere to go. The result is that tens of hectares of maize crop has been drowned, and therefore destroyed, and the likelihood that peoples’ homes will collapse as the flooding continues. Fighting has broken out between farmers whose crops are submerged by the water and others that have benefited from the canal like dam protecting their crops. Basically a mess and you cannot feel but sorry for the farmers and the rest of the community. The water levels in the toilet blocks at the local school are also close to ground level; any overflow would lead to effluent mixing with flood water. So we spent the day walking around the community, sympathising with the people we met, noting down all the problems and their grievances, offering (little pieces of) advice and promising action. The DC had a report by the following day. I hope that the recommendations are acted on.