FLOODS DAMAGE: GOVT COULD ANNOUNCE STATE OF EMERGENCY

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.

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