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The rains are upon us and are already causing havoc in different parts of the country. In Masvingo province, a hailstorm accompanied by strong winds destroyed homesteads, shops and schools in Bikita and Chiredzi Districts leaving about 200 families homeless. A similar destruction has been witnessed in Matabeleland South province where a some schools and homesteads have been destroyed by hailstorm.

Heavy rains pounded Harare on Monday causing flooding of the streets that threatened to submerge parked vehicles. This was caused mainly by the blocked storm water drains. Some properties were damaged forcing shop owners to close early as their workers battled to clear water that had been diverted into the shops because of the failure of the drainage system.

The city authorities who seem to have been caught unawares, panicked and immediately deployed teams to clear the storm water drains soon after the rains stopped and they had to work well into the night.

The Harare flooding could have been avoided had the city council workers cleared the storm water drains before the start of the rains. It is this lack of foresight on the part of council management which has resulted in unnecessary damage or loss of property for both business and ordinary residents.

We have already stated that many families are already stranded in different parts of the country after their homes were destroyed by hailstorms and we want to believe that the Civil Protection Unit which has structures cascading to, in some cases, ward level, has mobilised adequate resources to enable it to respond to distress calls.

The Masvingo CPU is appealing to non-governmental organisations to assist the stranded families and pupils whose homes and schools were destroyed in Chiredzi and Bikita Districts. It is the responsibility of the CPU to ensure the stranded families and pupils are assisted.

What we want to emphasise is that NGOs should only come in to complement CPU efforts. The CPU, as already alluded to, should always have resources set aside to enable it to swiftly respond to distress calls such as destruction of schools or homes. It is a fact that every year homes and schools are destroyed as a result of hailstorms or flooding so the CPU structures at all levels should have resources to enable them to assist affected people.

We have flood-prone areas such as Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North province and Muzarabani in Mashonaland Central where CPU teams are at times forced to evacuate people so the CPU can not afford to operate without resources as any delays in responding to distress calls could cost lives.

We have said it before that there is a need for the CPU to have a budget which is funded directly from the national budget as opposed to waiting for NGOs each time disaster strikes. It is against this background that we want to implore the National Civil Protection Director, Madzudzo Pawadyira, to come up with an annual budget and then push hard for the release of money to fund this budget by Treasury.

It serves no purpose to have CPU teams at the different levels if they do not have resources to enable them to respond to distress calls.