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Online Reporter—
THE various relief aid agencies currently responding to the Tokwe-Mukosi disaster are set to provide assistance for up to 12 weeks and then withdraw when the situation improves, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare has said. Among the aid agencies that are
currently on site and rendering much needed assistance are the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), while various Government departments within the province have been deployed to work round the clock rendering assistance to the affected people.
“These people who are assisting through aid agencies will leave within three months and we will have to support the affected families as they rebuild their lives here,” said Dr Chimedza.
His sentiments were echoed by the assistant district administrator of Mwenezi District, Elisa Chauke, who said that the flood victims were faced with a bleak 12 months as they had to leave their fields before harvesting and could not grow any food until the next rain season.
The eventual withdrawal of the aid agencies means that Government will have to ensure that over two thousand families resettled at Chingwizi are provided with food until such a time that they could grow their own crops and gain a semblance of normalcy after the flood-induced upheaval of the lives.
“These families are not going to be without food for the next 12 months until the next harvest season because their crops are gone and they have lost everything to the floods,” said Chauke.
Dr Chimedza said food donations would need to be sourced to cater for the entire 12 months and a long term strategy would need to be created to ensure the construction of schools, clinics, houses, toilets and the drilling of boreholes.
Online Reporter