By ISAAC MUKANDO –
KITWE District Commissioner Elias Kamanga has appealed to the Disaster Management Mitigating Unit (DMMU) in the Vice-President’s office to strengthen the unit at district level to enable it handle disasters in the district.
Mr Kamanga said the DMMU at district level had limited capacity to attend to disasters that had befallen Kitwe where houses have collapsed and bridges washed away due to continuous heavy rains.
He said the district needs financial, human resource and material support for it to address the current disaster where people have been left homeless while others have been cut off from the central business district.
Mr Kamanga was speaking when Kwacha Member of Parliament (MP) Boniface Mutale called on him after visiting some of the families, whose houses have collapsed in Ipusukilo Township.
He said his office would identify the families that desperately need assistance as the office’s capacity to handle the situation was limited.
And Mr Mutale urged the Kitwe City Council (KCC) to frequently conduct inspection on new houses to ensure that people do not occupy houses that were not safe to live in and that construction of houses in flood prone areas or close to the river banks should not be allowed.
