Barely four days after The Sunday Times heralded the plight of victims of the March floods that hit Mzuzu, Mzuzu City Council has hinted that over 1000 flood victims will be allocated with land for resettlement soon.
Director of Health and Social Services, Felix Namakhuwa, said on Tuesday that currently the council is liaising with the lands department to conclude the land deal.
“We applied to the ministry of lands so that we be given about 1000 plots for everyone whose house was completely washed away, paperwork is still underway but we are optimistic that every deserving household will have somewhere to resettle and get reestablished,” explained Namakhuwa.
He said, land acquisition remains a problem in the country’s major cities and Mzuzu is no exception disclosing that those whose houses were completely demolished will be the primary beneficiaries.
However, the council remains under pressure as the land being earmarked for the victims only caters for 20 percent of everyone that ought to move to uplands.
Over 5000, people were left destitute after their houses were washed away or partially destroyed by the water disaster earlier this year.
On Monday afternoon, a group of victims that stormed Times offices in Mzuzu lamented growing destitution in areas where they are seeking refuge.
The people said they have become impatient with the delay in land allocation, saying they suspect authorities could be busy doctoring the victims’ register in order to include their relations.
“We are tempted to go back and reconstruct our houses in the disaster prone gullies; we can’t stand this kind of prolonged suffering. After all disaster management is supposed to be associated with speed,” said Oban Mzumara.
Mzumara and counterparts further raised concern that they are yet to receive the start-up package which council authorities promised at the time they abolished the camps last month.
“We are tired of people coming to take our pictures and listing our names for donations, need I mention that only few individuals benefited from the money which the President gave out when he visited,” he added.
The assertions could not be further from the truth as councillor for Masasa Ward Yona Mkandawire in an earlier interview corroborated the fears that corruption and foul play have marred the disaster recovery initiative.
Leave a Reply