Chronicle Editor
A flood alert has been communicated early enough to people living in areas susceptible to flooding in Tsholotsho.
The Meteorological Services Department has forecast more heavy rains countrywide over the next few days.
With the ground already wet and rivers high after consistent, torrential rains since late last year, the risk for flooding in low-lying areas is high.
Acting on this possibility, the Civil Protection Unit has told communities in flood-prone areas, including Tsholotsho, to move away for some time so that if flooding occurs as forecast they would be safe. Thereafter, they can return to their homes if they so decide.
There is an old challenge with respect to some communities in Tsholotsho who get affected by floods frequently but they always refuse to relocate to safer places. We saw that when Cyclone Eline hit the area in the early 2000s and when Cyclone Dineo occurred in 2017.
Government relocated many flood victims in Tsholotsho to new stands at Tshino and Sawudweni villages but some of them have ignored the danger of recurrent floods and returned to their old homes, which they say have rich farming soils and better grazing.
The Met Office has warned that the flooding that is likely to affect Tsholotsho in the next few days will be on a scale unseen before.
“Word has spread that we should move,” Ms Ema Mlauzi from Mbamba Village told Chronicle as we reported yesterday.
“This time around, we have been told the floods will be worse than in 2017. We hope that it won’t be so because Cyclone Dineo will forever live in my mind as a nightmare I wish to forget. We shall move when we see water levels rising, we hope it won’t be as fast and unpredictable as it was the last time and we pray it will happen after we have harvested our tasselling maize crop.”
In saying this Ms Mlauzi spoke for scores of people in her village and others including Mahlosi, Mahlaba, Thamuhla, Mele, Lutshome, Maphili and Mbanyana.
We sympathise with them. They love their homes. They are attached to them. They have crops that are coming up well.
However, they need to appreciate that the danger that is looming as the incessant rains continue is life-threatening.
As a result, they may not have the time to harvest their promising maize crop when the deluge comes. Ms Mlauzi says they will move when they see the water level rising but experience tells us that flooding often happens at night.
For example, Ngangu in Chimanimani, Manicaland Province was slammed flat at night on March 15, 2019. The rains were so heavy that visibility was reduced to zero. When people realised that the water level had risen, they already had nowhere to run.
This can happen to Mbamba, Mahlosi, Mahlaba, Thamuhla, Mele, Lutshome, Maphili and Mbanyana villages. The flood can visit them at night as it did to Ngangu, with rains so heavy that visibility would be zero and the water level would have risen too high and so rapidly that they would have nowhere to run.
We don’t want our people in Tsholotsho to lose their lives, so we encourage them to heed the warning from experts for them to temporarily leave their homes, camp somewhere else and watch how the situation unfolds. Whatever happens they would be safe and can always return to their beloved homes.
The Government has done well to communicate the flood alert to Tsholotsho so many days in advance. That is excellent disaster preparedness. If the people move as we hope they will, the early warning would make response to disaster easier and minimise damage if indeed the flooding occurs.
Online Reporter