10 Oct 2013

Shortage of water in Maun has delayed the building of one-room houses for 121 flood victims.

The project is to be undertaken by the disaster management committee. Ms Peggie Molefhe, the secretary of the Ngamiland District Disaster Management Committee, said more than 303 people were left homeless by flooding that resulted from the heavy rains on the last rainy season. Two hundred and seventy-one victims were still to receive their shelter.

Ms Molefhe said the allocated money was not enough to build for all the people and more extensive research was undertaken by social workers as they were the ones who worked with such people daily, and they came up with a list of people who needed shelter most.

She added that the project had been delayed due to some challenges such as water shortages and lack of enough transport for building materials. However, she said currently all material has been transported to the sites. However, shortage of water remained a hindrance.

To solve the problem, the committee requested some water containers, commonly known as jojo, from other government departments and some primary schools to continue with the project as it was supposed to have been handed to beneficiaries by the end of next month.

The committee’s vice chairperson, Ms Gaehetswe Maphakwane, said three committee members and six social workers were trained for disaster camp behavior and camp management training of trainers.

The trainees were drilled on how to structure, manage disaster camps, how to handle the disaster victims and even educate the community about natural disasters. Ms Maphakwane said they trained more social workers as they dealt with the community daily and they knew their standard of living. She said the campaign to educate the community on disaster management was progressing well.

The deputy district commissioner at Maun Administrative Authority (MAA) and the disaster committee chairperson, Mr Keabetswe Lesiela, encouraged government departments to be involved in disaster management.

Mr Lesiela encouraged the disaster committee to coordinate its work in order to complete the housing project and move on with other relief undertaking. Ends