Thousands still affected by floods

COMMUNITIES in the Kavango
Region are still reeling from the effects of the floods earlier this year, with the Red Cross continuing to set up camps for displaced people across the region.

While the level of the Kavango River is beginning to subside in most areas, the flood plains of the Mukwe Constituency remain the most affected. Some thousands of displaced people expected to receive food aid for the first time today – morethan a month since their homes and crops were washed away. In addition to being displaced by floods, for those in Mukwe who still have crop fields, there is another concern: elephants that have themselves been displaced by the flooding.This year’s floods saw water levels rise to heights that the people in the area all agree they’ve never seen before. The Director of the Emergency Management Unit (EMU) in the Office of the Prime Minister, Japhet Iitenge, was in the area late last week to assess the flood situation and to deliver some of the basic necessities needed by affected communities. During a meeting with residents at the Kamutjonga Camp about 30 km from Divundu on Friday, Iitenge explained that the community, which came together only last week to form one of many relocationcamps across the region, would receive maize meal from Kavango Mills today. Other relief food items – oil and canned fish – are currently in short supply, but would be forthcoming, he said.He noted that the problems of food shortages, lack of full access to clean drinking water and other community concerns expressed by the community were similar to the challenges being faced by the 24 other relocation camps he had just visited. With the prospect of future flooding, coupled with the human-animal conflict that needs to be managed with elephants laying claim to what the humans plant, Iitenge asked residents whether they would consider resettling in another area if the notion was proposed to them. Many said they would. And while the floodingchallenge persists, there is a lot to celebrate in the work that has been done to bring relief to displaced communities thus far. To date, the Namibia Red Cross Society (NRCS), in partnership with the EMU, has mobilised communities to set up management systems for the camps, where the NRCS and Government can renderassistance. Before the establishment of these camps, households were scattered throughout the area, making it difficult to reach people. The NRCS has beendistributing blankets, mosquito nets, kitchen sets, plastic sheets, water purifiers,soap, tarpaulins, jerry cans and other necessities, with many of the Red Cross volunteers at the camps themselves having been displaced. According to FlorrySikongo, Regional Community Counselling and Testing Service and Disaster Management Co-ordinator for the Red Cross in the Kavango Region, the 38 volunteers assigned to the camps have all been ‘trained in health and hygiene promotion and water and sanitation practices,’ mobilising them to ‘provide education and increased awareness on the prevention of communicable diseases, including HIV, AIDS and TB.’ Sikongo says there has been no outbreak of waterborne diseases, with 27 pit latrines and 15 bathing shelters having beenconstructed across the various camps. But much remains to be done.nangula@namibian.com.na