Africa-Press – Zambia. On Sunday, President Hakainde Hichilema dedicated part of his schedule to a fact-finding mission to some flood-hit areas of the capital Lusaka. President Hichilema toured two places in Kabwata Constituency, two points in Chawama Constituency, Kanyama Constituency and part of Mateto Constituency
The tour gave the Head of State the opportunity to appreciate the magnitude of the problem and hopefully prevail on bureaucrats to interrogate the existing policy framework and revamp it in order to prevent the occurrences. It also gave the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) and the defence chiefs an appreciation of what they are up against in terms of disaster response.
Leading DMMU and the defence chiefs was a symbol of solidarity with the victims of the floods. The tour from the highest office in the land obviously gives victims hope and comfort of being cared for. It should however not end at the reactive rescue measures put in for them but should be used as ambassadors in the drive of the required mitigatory measures of decisively dealing with the flood menace.
There’s no better time for a leader to show empathy to the people he is leading than when they are going through a difficult time like this one. That is leadership exhibited by the Republican President. It is gestures like these that give people hope that there is a possible solution.
Solutions are multi-faceted and include: The major opportunity going forward is for our leaders to engage our engineers and other experts to come up with a permanent solution to this problem. There is need for a political will to invest huge amounts of funds to find apermanent solution to this perennial problem.
Apart from offering material relief by DMMU, this flooding shall never end if we do not provide adequate drainage system for the city such as the Bombay Drain. We have adequate computer based tools to help predict accurately the amount of water expected and must be removed each year. We are even able to predict the return period of floods.
Every road constructed must have a drain on the side. But look at Chalala, Kamwala South, Kanyama, Garden House, Chawama areas and many more. They are sitting on very flat land, yet no drains provided to take away the water. The entire Tokyo Way (Ring Road) has no drainage system. So, what do we expect?
A few roads provided with some tiny inadequate drains are being stuffed with rubbish and blocked. If we don’t act now, posterity will definitely judge us harshly but if we do, we shall leave a legacy that they people will always remember.
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