20 Mar 2017

North West District authorities are working round the clock to mitigate the aftermath of the recent floods threatening to submerge some villages in the district.

Affected villages include Morutsha, Khwai, and Chanoga and the district disaster management committee is working around the clock as the water levels in these villages continue to rise.

Assistant district officer for Maun Administration Authority (MAA), Ms Gaehetswe Maphakwane said in a recent interview that in Khwai 19 people including children and the elderly had been affected by the floods.

Ms Maphakwane who is also a member of the district disaster management committee said already 10 tents and clothes had been dispatched to those affected in Khwai.

“Residents were evacuated to high grounds at the kgotla area where tents are pitched,” Ms Maphakwane said.

She also noted that businesses had not been spared as business at Khwai Lodge had been suspended as the lodge was submerged in floods.

In Morutsha, Ms Maphakwane said the settlement was surrounded by flooding river streams leaving the small community stranded.

“The floods have affected 15 individuals in this settlement and residents were told to evacuate and move their livestock to unaffected areas such as Shorobe and Quonqa, Farming yields have also been affected,” she said.

Chanoga was also not spared by the flood as six people required assistance. She further said the district disaster management committee was prepared and ready to assist.

Meanwhile, a research scholar in hydrology at the Okavango Research Institute (ORI), Mr Edwin Mosimanyana, said the recent floods in Northern region was a result of torrential rains which left the grounds wet causing water to spread all over.

If the ground was water logged there would be an increase in surface water which could trigger floods should the rain continue, he said in an interview.

Another water expert who is head of aquatic vegetation control unit in the department of water affairs Maun, Dr Naidu Kurugundla concurred that floods in the delta was influence by the above normal local rainfalls.

He said other areas in the southern part of Botswana were also affected by floods because of local rainfalls. ENDS