By Judith Sibanda
Over 60 Mkhosana residents in Victoria Falls had their properties and houses destroyed by heavy rains that have battered the resort city in the past few weeks.
According to ward 11 councillor Goshen Zhou who visited the affected families, property such as sofas, television sets, doors and kitchen appliances were destroyed.
“In my records, I managed to document over 60 households with families of four or so and all have been affected,” Zhou said.
The persistent rains that began in January, although have not claimed any life in the resort city, affected even those who live in makeshift homes in the Mfelandawonye area.
“People are in desperate need of help and last week l went for a tour with council management in the engineering department and they saw it for themselves,” said Zhou.
Among the affected is 56-year-old Nevanji Mudimba who lost most of his property.
“We were sitting in the lounge when my son saw rainwater getting in through the door and because of its sheer force it soon flooded the house and destroyed my property,” Mudimba narrated.
Zhou added that the local authority was not in a position to assist the affected families and appealed to the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) to intervene.
“Council is not able to assist the people, so we hope that the government will and the Civil Protection Unit department has also been notified.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) press release of January 21, heavy rainfall has been affecting southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe over the last week, causing river overflow, in particular, the Kafue River and floods that have resulted in casualties and damage.
“In Zambia, media reported, as of 21 January, around 15 000 affected people across the Namwala District (Southern Province),” OCHA said.
“In addition, media also reported around 110 displaced people and 500 affected families across the Choma District in the same and in Zimbabwe, a number of destroyed and damaged houses, some damaged roads and a damaged bridge in Victoria Falls City (Matabeleland North Province).”
