Flood plain residents still recovering

The Zambezi flood plains in western Zambia are home to the Lozi people, who retreat to higher ground from the advancing waters during the rainy season. This retreat, known as the Kuomboka (coming out of the water), is traditionally led by the king, the Litunga, from his dry-season abode at Lealui on the plain to his high-water residence at Limulunga on the eastern margins of the flood plain. The ceremony signifies the community's reliance on both upland and wetland and is a coping strategy for the annual seasonal flooding. However, this year brought earlier and higher than normal levels of flooding that unsettled the local communities' coping strategies. Families residing on little islands in the Zambezi, who do not usually migrate, were displaced by floods and had to seek refuge in temporary shelters. The region had experienced extensive flooding since December last year because of high rainfall, which affected more than 38,000 households in seven districts across Zambia's Western and North-Western provinces, destroying infrastructure and crops. The situation has also been fraught with a lack of institutional assistance for post-flood reconstruction. The Lealui Basic School near the summer royal palace was submerged during the floods, prompting health authorities to close the school prematurely. "We are scared when we think of the next floods - toilets are almost collapsing and some houses have developed cracks. I am scared because on radio they are talking of more heavy rains," said school principal Peter Ngenda. He is worried that the annual flooding may have weakened the foundations of the school. "Two years from now, some of the structures will collapse if nothing is done," he said. According to a 2004 report, 'Rapid needs assessment and analysis of impact and extent of floods in western Zambia', by the UK-based relief agency, Oxfam, over 30 schools were submerged, making the facilities unusable. Water sources were contaminated and the receding water, which left behind lakes, became a breeding ground for mosquitoes and bacteria. The Oxfam report estimates that local rural health centres recorded an increase of between 10 percent and 20 percent in malaria and dysentery cases in the period. Other effects include reduced production, a lack of seeds for next season and reduced winter cropping, leading to a rise in the number vulnerable households. Crop losses ranging from 80 percent to 100 percent were recorded - fields in the low-lying areas along the Zambezi were submerged, while those about to mature were harvested prematurely, using canoes. Lubinda Akakulubelwa is still reeling from the effects of the floods. "I was born in 1958 in Siliwa village [on the outskirts of Mongu, capital of Western province]. My wife is from the nearby village and we have five children. Since we settled in Siliwa, we have never seen such levels of water for the past 30 years," he said. Akakulubelwa and 20 other households moved to higher ground along the Mongu-Kalabo road to seek temporary refuge. "We are struggling to ensure that our families have enough to eat and sometimes we just have to settle on one meal per day. Grain is particularly a problem. We can catch fish to eat, but we rarely have enough to exchange for maize, or sell to get a little cash because we have other needs besides eating," he said. Bornface Sifunganyambe and his family, residents of the Mingili village in Mongu, have been reduced to providing labour for upland farmers in return for rice, on which they survive. They abandoned the village in February and sought refuge on the embankment of the new road until the floods subsided in May. Sifunganyambe's maize crop was submerged and most of the plains are still wet, making the family even more vulnerable. "We see hunger and we don't know how we will get to the next harvest. We have left everything in the hands of God," he said. "There has been no legal framework to enable us to help families to reconstruct," Pumulo Mubita, regional co-coordinator for the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), which falls under the office of the vice president, told IRIN. Mubita said the office was pursuing the implementation of a Disaster Management Act. "The framework will give us the legal authority to respond to emergencies," he said. "Other than provide food in flood affected districts, we have not done anything to help the victims. We commissioned airlifting of relief food with ZAF [Zambia Air Force] during floods, but now we are also distributing by road," Mubita said. The government, along with the NGO, Programme Against Malnutrition, is distributing food security packs containing seeds.