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The swift reaction by the Civil Protection Unit to evacuate people from flooded areas in the past week must be commended. With little resources, the unit has not been deterred in its efforts to rescue people and livestock and ensuring that they get food and shelter.

Indeed, it has not been easy for the CPU which has to a large extent depends on assistance from other departments and agencies. More people and livestock could have died had the CPU procrastinated in its rescue operations.

While it is common knowledge that the CPU is disabled in terms of capacity as it relates to resources it, however, cannot be faulted as it always reacts fast to disasters.

Flooding in the areas is something that is known to happen every time there is too much rainfall and so it calls for a high level of preparedness on the part of the CPU. The Meteorological Services Department, through its early warning unit, played its part by issuing flood warnings, which we believe got the CPU to prepare for the eventuality.

Preparedness, however, requires resources both financial and material, something we find seriously lacking in the CPU. Its failure to best tackle its rescue operations cannot entirely be blamed on it but Government must take much of the blame because of the meagre resources it allocates the unit.

While we appreciate that the unit does not undertake rescue operations in isolation, it still needs to be fully funded to be able to stand on its own and only cries out for assistance when the magnitude of disaster is way beyond its scope. The disaster that has occurred would have seen the unit undertaking rescue operations without enlisting external assistance if it was well resourced.

We challenge the Government to take the operations of the CPU very seriously by ensuring that it is well funded. There is no reason whatsoever why the unit cannot have its own helicopters for evacuation operations instead of relying on the benevolence of the Air Force of Zimbabwe. Indeed, the Air Force and other agencies become partners of the CPU when there is disaster but we still believe that the CPU needs its own resources that it can call for use at any time.

Those opposed to the CPU becoming a well-resourced unit will always argue that flooding does not occur everyday and that the resources would thus lie idle during the greater part of the year.

We must not only look at disaster in terms of flooding caused by heavy rainfall; that is too narrow a definition of disaster as broadly it entails everything that is natural or man-made that threatens human life and livestock.

Disasters come in various forms; flooding, mudslides, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and many others. It is sad that we only hear of the CPU when there is disaster yet we expect to see it participating in the many workshops and seminars on disaster management and disaster risk reduction. The unit should also be visiting the flood-prone areas to educate people on what to do when disaster strikes and many other things related to disaster risk reduction.

That is why we strongly believe the CPU must be transformed into a solid unit that is capable of tackling disasters to the best of its ability. Let external assistance from other Government agencies and NGOs be a bonus.

It must not depend on external assistance as the consequences of that external help not coming when it’s needed would be dire. The unit must be empowered with the manpower and all resources so that it does not always send a begging bowl when disaster strikes. No.

We hope the Government will take note of these concerns and address the issues in the next Budget. We really shudder to think what would happen if we were to experience earthquakes and mudslides when we have a malnourished CPU.

However, it is also high time Government considers moving people living in low-lying, flood-prone areas to higher ground. Resources continue being poured into rescue operations when the people should just be moved to higher ground and save millions of dollars for other pressing national requirements.

We know it is always difficult to move people from areas they have become attached to but again we cannot continue evacuating them every time there is flooding. If it means forcible eviction, then let it be. There is still land on which the people can be resettled; we should not place too much attention on sentimentality but rather on saving lives.