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Ray Bande and Luthando Mapepa
VIOLENT storms recorded in parts of Manicaland early this week left a trail of destruction, with several schools having their roofs destroyed, while infrastructure was badly damaged.
The most affected districts are Buhera and Chipinge and the Manicaland Provincial Department of Civil Protection is on high alert.
In Buhera South, at Barura Primary School, a classroom block and staff accommodation apartments had their roofing material ripped off, while seven schools in Chipinge District that include Mutema, Maunganidze, Checheche, Chisavanye, St Peter’s and Machona primary schools as well as Checheche High School also suffered similar infrastructural damages.
Acting Manicaland Provincial Director (Local Government Services and Administration), Mr John Misi, confirmed the trial of destruction that was caused by violent storms, and urged communities to be vigilant in view of more storms that may occur.
“We are aware that some schools in Manicaland had their roofs ripped off following violent storms that accompanied the recent rains received in most parts of the country.
“We are on high alert as the provincial Department of Civil Protection. In fact, this is happening after we had our contingency planning meeting as a province where each local authority and each district was told of the need to have a plan and a budget for such eventualities. During that contingency planning meeting, Disaster Risk Reduction mechanisms such as retro fitting (an assessment of community structures like roofing that should be strengthened if weak) and cleaning of culverts, among many other initiatives were taught in order to reduce destruction in the event of disasters.
“We have trained all communities across the province following lessons learnt from the Cyclone Idai. Every district was equipped with the basic skills and we want them to report, for example, the case of Buhera South where Barura Primary School’s classroom block and staff accommodation roofing material was damaged,” he said.
At least seven schools in Chipinge district were destroyed by a violent storm which hit the area last Sunday afternoon.
The violent storm also destroyed ZESA transmission lines and several shops at Checheche Town Centre.
In a separate interview, acting Chipinge District schools’ inspector, Mr Abson Mapfumo, said schools in Chipinge District are vulnerable to bad weather due to aging infrastructure.
Mr Mapfumo said since Chipinge District is vulnerable to natural disasters, the ministry has capacitated school heads, teachers, school development committee members and learners on disaster risk reduction.
“At district level, we have engaged the District Civil Protection Committee to intervene and assist the affected schools. We would like to encourage our school heads to report these mishaps in time so that appropriate interventions are put in place to save lives and property,” he said.
Mr Mapfumo said the ministry is keen to ensure that the infrastructure being constructed in schools is of the required standards.
“We have adopted the building back better method in refurbishing all damaged infrastructure. This also applies to all new infrastructure being constructed. We want to modernise our schools through quality infrastructure. No structure should be erected without inspection.
“We have received a few reports highlighting the issue of bill of quantities of the damaged property. We are also urging the schools to remove furniture from the damaged infrastructure and put it in other rooms so that learning will not be disrupted when schools open in January next year.
“We also need to hold urgent meetings at the affected schools to find ways of raising resources to refurbish the damaged infrastructure before schools open,” he added.
Manicaland Provincial Education Director, Mr Edward Shumba, urged parents and the schools’ authorities to work together to refurbish the damaged infrastructure in order to maintain quality education in Manicaland.
“We call upon all stakeholders to come on board and assist in the refurbishment of the damaged infrastructure. We want to ensure that the quality of education in the province remainshigh. We want to uphold Manicaland’s education flag high, and as province we were impressed by the performance of our 2023 Grade Seven learners who scored big in the ZIMSEC national examinations. We had 790 six pointers in the ZIMSEC Grade Seven results.
“This is a big achievement and when such destruction of infrastructure occurs, we all need to join hands to build back better all the damaged infrastructure,” he said.
Online Reporter