The Permanent Secretary of Local and Regional Government, Erastus Negonga, has been appointed as the co-ordinator of the office.

Negonga yesterday called a press conference to brief the media on progress made in the relief effort.

He said Femco was co-ordinating with regional and local authorities to make sure that people displaced by the floods are relocated to suitable areas, supplied with sanitation services to prevent outbreaks of diseases.

Negonga said financial constraints were hampering the relief effort, especially when it came to helicopter airlifts.

The two NDF helicopters made available to transport medicines and food to isolated communities were not enough, he said.

The other major problems are poor sanitation and a lack of tents, food, medicines and clean water for displaced people.

Education has been severely disrupted, with some schools having been closed for two months already.

Inaccessible health facilities, the non-payment of pensions and damage to roads and bridges added to the woes of people in the North, he said.

According to Negonga, many people cut off by the floods in rural areas are reluctant to be relocated.

"They do not want to leave their flooded homesteads, because many of their belongings are there and they are afraid that the criminals will come and steal their belongings," he said.

Negonga thanked those who have donated money and goods to the flood victims and called upon businesspeople, Government institutions and individuals to continue assisting displaced people, whose numbers were increasing every day.

He said so far 71 000 people have been affected by the flood and more than 4 000 displaced.

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