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Herald Reporter
Floods damaged 43 houses in Budiriro when the Marimba River burst its banks, while 57 houses in Nyatsime were damaged, with two destroyed by heavy rainfall received in Harare Metropolitan over the last few days.
More damage was recorded in several parts of the country, including Gokwe, as downpours persist.
Zimbabwe continues to receive normal-to-above-normal rainfall in all the 10 provinces as forecast by the Meteorological Services Department.
Several houses were damaged by heavy rains in Nyatsime area and homeowners are struggling to fix them. Some had left the area and sought refuge with relatives living in safer places.
Nyatsime residents feared that the rains would persist and worsen their situation.
Mrs Tendai Makoni, said there was a possibility of more damage in the area and implored the authorities to intervene to minimise the dangers.
“We are living in fear. Our houses have so far been damaged because of floods and heavy rains experienced. We are now afraid for the safety of our children and even us adults.
“Anything can happen if the rains persist. The destruction to our property so far is very hard to accept. Natural disasters can happen and no one can be blamed for this.”
Another resident, Mr Thomas Zareva said flash floods had occurred during most of the previous rainy seasons adding that this had left people in the area homeless.
“Damage to buildings nowadays is a big loss to the families. We pray that we remain safe until the rainy season ends. We are now struggling to repair our houses damaged by heavy rains. This is terrible, but there is nothing we can do, but at the moment we are living in fear,” he said.
The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works director of communications and advocacy Mr Gabriel Masvora said a team from the Department of Civil Protection, accompanied by Manyame District Civil Protection Committee, went to Ward 9 in Nyatsime to conduct a rapid assessment following reports of damage to houses and property by heavy rains.
He said it was observed that 24 families were affected by heavy rains in the ward and their houses were partially destroyed while two houses were completely destroyed.
He added that most of the roofs were blown off by heavy winds and some families were in the process of reconstructing the damaged homes.
“The province received heavy rainfall. 43 families were affected in Budiriro by flash floods due to overflowing of Marimba River. Flash floods were also reported in Chitungwiza, Tynwald, Ashdown Park, Westgate, Lochinvar and the central business district.
“On Monday, Chitungwiza’s Nyatsime area received heavy rainfall which resulted in floods which affected 57 households. More than 100 people were affected,” said Mr Masvora.
Midlands province also received heavy rainfall in Gokwe North, Ward 29, where communities around Kawongo River in Mutimuri area were affected by flooding.
“At Mutimuri Secondary School the rains destroyed a 3-roomed teacher’s residence. Food, groceries, four cellphones, 10 squat hole toilets ,108 desks, 6 teachers’ chairs, 80 bags of cement, 79 galvanised sheets, 20 buckets, clothes, seven mattresses, 14 blankets, 200 exercise books ,100 khaki covers, 100 plastic covers, pens, two bathrooms, 350 textbooks and 130 record books were also destroyed,” said Mr Masvora.
Gokwe South also received heavy rains with 60 homesteads in Maware Village under chief Nemangwe in Ward 9 suffered damage.
The Department of Civil Protection in Harare has developed a national contingency plan as part of its preparedness to help people in communities in cases of flooding and natural disasters across the country.
The plan, approved by Cabinet in November last year, is the blueprint that the Government and partners are using to respond to both meteorological and human-induced disasters.
Recently, Mr Masvora said, Government was strengthening measures to ensure that information dissemination on rainfall was ongoing through alert messages on mainstream media, community radio stations and other media platforms
Civil protection command centres at all levels remained activated for response and coordination.
The Met Department said unstable atmospheric conditions in some parts of the country resulted in scattered thunderstorms with heavy falls in places due to slight convergence from the north coupled with the cooler airflow from the south east.
Online Reporter