Controlled settlement the answer to floods: Negonga

TRADITIONAL leaders have to see to it that people are not allocated land in flood-prone areas, says the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government Development, Erastus Negonga.

Negonga is the co-ordinator of the recently established Flood Emergency Management Committee (Femco).’Guided by the Communal Land Act, we assume that traditional leaders will not put people in oshanas,’ he told The Namibian.He said some people had settled in flood-prone areas without permission from their traditional leaders or local authorities.In towns, people put up shacks wherever they can find a spot – even in oshanas, he said. ‘Most people who are flooded in urban areas are those in informal settlements,’ said Negonga.He said local authorities have regulations on where people should be given land for houses or businesses and if the available land is not high enough, there are specifications on how it should be developed. Floods in northern and northeastern Namibia have displaced thousands of people, destroyed fields and made roads impassable. President Hifikepunye Pohamba recently declared an emergency in the flood-stricken North. Water levels are now subsiding in the Cuvelai Delta in north-central Namibia, but the Okavango and Zambezi rivers in the northeastern Caprivi and Kavango Regions are still rising.According to Kavango Governor John Thighuru, at least 984 families have been relocated in his region so far.Last week, two academics at the University of Namibia’s Ogongo Campus in the Omusati region, Professor Luke Kanyomeka and Barbra Kachigunda, blamed poor urban planning for the impact of the annual flooding in the North.They suggested a law prohibiting people to settle or build in floodplains.absalom@namibian.com.na