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Nduduzo Tshuma Senior Reporter
MATABELELAND North province has activated disaster preparedness committees to deal with potential flooding situations, the provincial administrator, Lathiso Dlamini, said yesterday.

She said the province was ready to deal with disasters.

Tsholotsho was hardest hit by floods in Matabeleland North in last year’s rainy season, with hundreds of villagers affected.

Dlamini said the provincial Civil Protection Unit held a meeting last week to prepare for disasters and engaged villagers in low lying areas on how to respond to the floods.

“We are ready as we already have a committee in place that looks at disasters. We had a meeting last week to activate the committee and advised our implementing partners like Red Cross and other organisations,” said Dlamini.

She said they had activated the committees right to district level for the smooth flow of information.

“We are also working with the Meteorological Office so that they give us the expected amounts of rainfall so that we advise people so that they are prepared,” said Dlamini.

She said some of the affected villagers had been assisted with building material to build stronger houses.

“The ones that they build, the usual mud huts are easily affected by the rains. They collapse easily after heavy rains so we gave them some cement at the beginning of the year, so that they construct stronger houses,” she said.

“We will monitor and check how they have built the houses.”

Dlamini said they faced a challenge where villagers refused to move from low lying areas with some saying they could not leave graves of their ancestors, while others did not want to leave the fertile soils in the area.

In Butabubili village, 19 huts were destroyed by rains in one night last year, while some villagers in other areas had their entire homesteads damaged. The rains also destroyed crops exposing villagers to hunger.

The government responded to the floods by distributing foodstuffs and clothing, while a number of organisations complemented its efforts by providing tents and food kits among other things.

The business community also chipped in with Choppies Supermarket donating groceries worth more than $30,000 to the flood victims.

In February, Tsholotsho district administrator Nosizi Dube told Chronicle that 45 homesteads needed evacuation in Mahlosi area, 70 in Matupula, 86 in Maphili and 50 in Mambanjeni. She said about 250 people risked being swept away by flash floods. The Air Force of Zimbabwe had to move into some areas inaccessible by road to evacuate the villagers.