Floods in Zambia

An editorial in the Times of Zambia, via AllAfrica.com: …Zambia …has not been spared and has had her fair share of changing weather patterns characterised by flooding. Floods have become an annual phenomenon resulting in thousands of people being displaced while their crops have been washed away.

Infrastructure, such as bridges and roads in some parts of the country has been damaged and an ailing economy such as Zambia's cannot afford to allow such a situation to continue. The grim realities of flooding in Lusaka's Kanyama Township and the Barotse plains of Western Province are some of the stark reminders which must jolt the nation to action.

Residents of Western Province ravaged by the floods can take heart that the Government is committed to ensuring the effects of the floods are mitigated. Vice-President George Kunda, in Western Province to commiserate with the people displaced by the floods, said the Government was devising effective strategies to mitigate the effects of the floods.

Mindful that the floods had now become a yearly occurrence, Mr Kunda assured the people that the Government would strengthen the disaster management and mitigation unit to ensure such calamities are handled effectively. Government work can however be made simpler if those Zambians living in such disaster prone areas heed numerous calls for them to relocate to safer zones….

The Victoria Falls Bridge, from the Zambia side, shot by Florence Devouard, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2