Times Of Swaziland: FLOODS DAMAGE: GOVT COULD ANNOUNCE STATE OF EMERGENCY

FLOODS DAMAGE: GOVT COULD ANNOUNCE STATE OF EMERGENCY
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Nonduduzo Kunene on 15/02/2023 07:54:00


MBABANE – Government might announce a national state of emergency in response
to damages caused by the heavy rains that occurred in the past week.
The Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Themba Masuku said this when speaking during a
press conference yesterday, after he assessed the damages caused by the heavy
rains in the country. The DPM’s assessment came a day after Cabinet’s visit
to some of the affected areas in the Lubombo Region where the prime minister was
leading the tour.
Yesterday, Masuku together with the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA)
flew to the Shiselweni Region and part of Lubombo Region to assess the damage
that was caused by the rains. Masuku said the assessment was a preamble to a
comprehensive report that they would present to the central government.
Masuku flew in a helicopter that was sponsored by Mercy Air. He said from the
assessment, they noted that most of the damage was in the Northern Hhohho Region
and Northern Lubombo Region. “The rains were heavy in those two regions,” he
said. The DPM said in the Shiselweni Region, the damage was mostly in the fields
as crops were submerged in water. Some of the maize stems that survived the
three weeks of scotching sun were buried in the floods as well as vegetables.
He added that the full assessment was not done as the NDMA team was still busy
on the ground, working around the clock to produce a detailed report that would
give the country a direction to take. Following the damage in property, fields
and disruptions of learning in some schools, Masuku was asked if government
would announce a state of emergency in order to respond to the disaster.
Destruction
Noteworthy, the rains also affected Mozambique and South Africa (SA). Due to the
trail of destruction, the SA government declared a state of emergency. A state
of emergency is declared when a disaster occurred and was believed it was
imminent that is severe enough to require State aid to supplement local
resources in preventing or alleviating damages, loss, hardship or suffering.
Masuku said it was premature to say which direction would government take
regarding declaring a state of emergency. He said a state of emergency was
determined by the damage caused in the country. “We cannot declare a state of
emergency when only one part of the country was hit by the disaster,” he said.
He stated that it was possible for government to declare a state of emergency
after the completion of the report. He said they did not have an intension to
declare a state of emergency but if the NDMA report suggests that government
needed to step up, they might recommend the declaration.
Masuku said government was fresh from responding to the COVID-19 state of
emergency. He explained that declaring a state of emergency meant moving
resources from other sectors and be channelled towards the response to the
disaster. “We are waiting for the NDMA’s report,” he said. The DPM stated
that government at the moment did not have an overall cost of the damage, but
after the completion of the assessment they would be in a better position to
announce the trail of destruction in figures.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a figure of the damage that was caused by the
rain. We need experts in the different fields that were affected to assist the
teams,” he said. Further, Masuku said they were running away from announcing
wrong estimates. Worth noting in 2021 during the June 29 civil unrest,
government announced that the damage of the unrest was around E2 billion. Three
months later, the NDMA came with a report that stated that the damage was around
E800 million.