23 Jan 2013

Palapye district administration (DA) office has run short of tents to accommodate people affected by recent heavy downpours in Palapye and surrounding villages.

Acting Palapye deputy district commissioner, Ms Mphoyame Seokamo said in an interview that the 17 tents the office had, were issued to residents of Mogapi after a storm that hit the village at the beginning of the year.

She said the tents were not enough for the 56 families who were left homeless. She said the 35 tents received from the National Disaster Management Office recently were also not enough to accommodate all the affected families adding that some families would be forced to share tents.

Ms Seokamo said if the number of affected families increases, they would be accommodated in Village Development Committee (VDC) houses and community halls.

She, however, raised a concern that failure to return the tents after use by some disaster victims also contributed to the shortage of tents in Palaye, adding that the DA inventory indicated that the office had a total of 83 tents.

 “Affected people are supposed to use tents for a period of three months but if there’s need for extension then it should be done in writing by the Social and Community Development (S&CD) office,” she said.

Ms Seokamo said records indicated that about 66 tents were issued to the 2009 disaster victims in Dimajwe and Mmashoro, adding that attempts had been made to collect the tents but the affected people refused to return them demanding government to build houses for them.

Of the 83 tents her office had, she said only 17 were collected. She cited lack of proper monitoring as a contributing factor and emphasised that follow ups would be done on those assisted with tents.

The mostly affected villages, she said, were Tamasane, Lerala, Seolwane, Moremi and Moreomabele and Mosweu. Meanwhile assessments were still ongoing to check the extent of the damages. ENDS