By SIMON MUNTEMBA
ZAMBIA has over the years been experiencing perennial floods due to poor residential planning, UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has observed.
Mr. Hichilema has called for proper planning of settlements and residential areas to avoid the floods and destruction of houses and crops in an event of heavy rains.
According to the UPND media team, Mr. Hichelema said this yesterday when he donated foodstuffs to victims of the Mumbwa floods.
He attributed the calamity, which led to the death of a 21-year-old woman last weekend, to lack of proper planning and citing of residential areas.
“How do you build dams upstream while build residential areas and settlements downstream. This is the result. We need to plan and unfortunately our government is failing to do that. We shall prioritise planning to avoid such calamities that result in casualties,” Mr. Hichilema said.
Mr Hichilema said he decided to spend his New Year celebrations with people who were affected by the floods in the spirit of brotherhood and called for unity and brotherliness even in times of bereavement and calamities.
He also commended the community for aiding one another during the rescue mission.
“I want in a special way to thank you the people of this community for being each other’s keeper during the calamity.
“You came together and rescued the victims and all I can say is thank you very much. To the youths job well done, your help came at the right moment otherwise we would have had several casualties,” he said.
He donated foodstuffs that included mealie meal, cooking oil, sugar, and an oxen for distribution to the affected people.
