Caprivi battles crisis - by Chrispin Inambao

From The New Era
March 17, 2010




WINDHOEK – Elephants from Chobe National Park are worsening a food crisis attributed to crop damage caused by floods in Caprivi, where the regional disaster risk management committee has urgently asked for 800 tonnes of food aid to mitigate the twin crisis.

Caprivi Governor, Leonard Mwilima, said migratory elephant herds from the world-renowned Chobe National Park, Botswana, have devoured unharvested crops of maize fields at Ngoma, Sikanjabuka and Muyako.

Elephants trekking to Namibia on seasonal migration, he said, have worsened an already precarious food situation caused by the current flooding, prompting the regional disaster risk management committee to request for food aid from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Mwilima said the rising water level of the Zambezi River yesterday hit the 7.22-metre watermark compared to 6.58 metres recorded by hydrologists during the historic floods of 2009 that swamped the flood-belt and inundated settlements not located in the traditional flood-zone.

Two days ago, the water level was 7.16 m compared to the corresponding 6.62 m for 2009.

He said areas in Linyanti and Kongola constituencies are also flooded in addition to Kabbe because of the ever-rising water level of the Chobe River that has ruined un-harvested maize crop for up to 20 households at Mbilajwe in the Linyanti constituency.

Villagers at Choi in Linyanti and Kanono in Sibbinda constituency are urgently in need of food assistance and tents because of the ruinous effects of floods.

The river basin of the area where the government-funded multi-million-dollar Zambezi Waterfront is swamped by floodwater and this could spell doom in the form of flooding at Chotto.

Meanwhile, Kabbe Constituency Councillor, Peter Mwala, said more villagers have been evacuated from villages that are currently surrounded and cut-off by raging floodwaters.

“The situation as it is now is that floodwater is very high to such an extent that it has forced many people to be evacuated from Nankuntwe and Namiyundu. Teachers, learners and community members were evacuated to the relocation centre at Schuckmannsburg,” he said.

“And we will soon evacuate the people from Muzii since the water is rising very rapidly. This evacuation will take place within the course of this week. Today we dispatched a team to Muzii to meet with the community,” said the councillor.

He also concurred with the governor saying only a few motorised boats with a capacity to carry up to 15 adults or alternatively 20 children are being used in ongoing evacuations, adding that those being evacuated are only allowed to carry blankets and cooking pots.

“We try to minimise the incidents of capsizing by not overloading the boats,” he said.

He said not all the villagers are being evacuated as a few able-bodied men remain to guard their properties against gangs of thieves who this time of year use floods to their advantage as they wantonly loot deserted villages whose residents would have been relocated.

Another settlement that has been surrounded by water is Malindi Primary, he said, while also noting that unlike in the past stock losses will be minimal because most of the cattle were driven to higher drier land at Lusese and Kabbe where there are resettlement centres.

Two days ago, some thatched huts were inundated at Kalimbeza, one of the largest villages in Namibia.

Lisikili in Katima Rural is another village that was recently evacuated after it got flooded.

Mwala said any of the villagers who may have a flood-related emergency are free to contact the Kabbe Constituency Office or alternatively he is available on the mobile: 0812800921.