adminWalter Nyamukondiwa Kariba Bureau
Police has set up satellite sub-aqua units in the Zambezi Valley to ensure expeditious response and rescue missions as the country moves to mitigate the effects of climate change, which have left some regions including the valley susceptible to hazards and shocks such as flooding.
This is part of the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund through the Zambezi Valley Alliance programme being bankrolled by the Government, UK Aid, the Swedish government, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme.
The programme is being led by ActionAid Zimbabwe, which has capacitated the unit by providing diving suits, oxygen tanks, snorkelling tubes and divers’ boots among others worth US$60 000. The Government on its part, is set to acquire at least 40 boats as it moves to capacitate the unit, which undertakes rescue missions, body retrievals after drownings, underwater investigations and retrieval of exhibits.
At least three satellite units will be stationed in the flood-prone areas of Kariba, Mbire and Binga districts where more than 50 people died in the 2017/18 rainfall season owing to drownings in rivers across the three districts.
Some families in Binga have been marooned after flash flooding. At least 25 members of the ZRP Sub aqua Unit comprising 22 males and three females drawn from different provinces successfully completed the course.
Previously, divers would be deployed from Harare and Bulawayo in the event of a disaster, which resulted in delays in having people rescued or bodies retrieved after disasters.
Speaking at the pass-out parade for the 24 divers on Friday last week, police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga said ZRP has approached Treasury for the purchase of 40 boats for the Sub aqua Unit.
There are indications that at least two boats will be procured every year owing to tight fiscal space and competing priorities.
The current fleet was purchased in 1999 and is now in need of replacement and servicing.
CG Matanga said climate change had broadened the scope of the police’s responsibilities and that of the police Sub aqua unit which traditionally was inclined towards body recovery services.
“However, due to climate change, the demands of the unit’s services have broadened,” he said. This has been witnessed through the increased frequency of flash floods, especially in low lying areas of the Zambezi Valley including Kariba, Mbire and Binga.
Online Reporter