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George Maponga in Masvingo
After escaping floods at Tokwe-Mukosi, it seems trouble always follows the nearly 3 000 Tokwe-Mukosi flood victims who have to deal with a fresh crisis at Chingwizi holding camp in Mwenezi where they were relocated after their tents, food stuffs and property were damaged by floods following heavy rains that pounded the Nuanetsi ranch on Monday.

The relocated families were left counting the cost of incessant rains which soaked tents at the holding camp leaving the majority of them without shelter, food and blankets.

Every family receives a monthly food allocation and blankets among other items upon arrival at Chingwizi.

Nearly 1 700 families were on Monday pounded by heavy rains after spending the night under trees and makeshift plastic shacks at Chingwizi as they have not yet received tents for temporary shelter.

The tents ran out last week.

There are growing fears of disease outbreak at Chingwizi following the floods that also swept away temporary toilets at the camp.

Government today said it had deployed five teams, including those responsible for health and sanitation to Chingwizi to assess the situation after the heavy rains.

Chairperson of the Tokwe-Mukosi relocation co-ordinating committee and Masvingo provincial administrator  Mr Felix Chikovo said he was yet to get details on the full extent of the fresh crisis.

” We have dispatched our search and rescue teams to Chingwizi holding camp to assess the situation on the ground following heavy rains that fell in the area on Monday. There are five teams that we sent there and some of them will look at health and sanitation issues,”he said.

Mr Chikovo said, while the main food holding centre at Chingwizi, had been spared damage since it is located on high ground, tents housing the families might have been soaked in rain as work on a contour ridge to curb downhill flooding has not yet been completed.

Mwenezi district administrator Mr Stanley Chamisa said there was total disaster at the camp.

He added that some families spent the whole day and night in open rain because of shortage of tents.

”We now have a population of 3 242 families at Chingwizi and out of that number only 1 600 have tents and when heavy rains fell on Monday nearly 1 700 others were in the open because we could not shelter them after running out of tents last week. Their belongings such as blankets and food rations were damaged by rains and there is a real crisis here.

“Even those with the tents were not spared the damage as most of the tents were also damaged by the floods leaving them without their food rations and I do not know what is going to happen to them,” he said.

Mr Chamisa said families were busy trying to dry their wet blankets and clothes after a lull in rainfall activity.

“After the damage caused by the rains the families’ now need new food allocations,” he added.

The Mwenezi DA cautioned the humanitarian situation at Chingwizi might worsen if more rains fall in the next few days saying there was urgent need for more tents to shelter the families.

The Tokwe-Mukosi relocation co-ordinating committee has already appealed for more food aid to feed families at Chingwizi who are going to need assistance for the next 12 months.

An appeal for an additional nearly 20 000 tents has also been made to temporarily shelter the remaining families.

The damage to food by rains will worsen the food deficit at Chingwizi which is now home to over 18 000 people who were relocated from the Tokwe-Mukosi dam flood basin.

Government has already launched an appeal for US$20 million to donor organisations and the international community to alleviate the plight of Tokwe-Mukosi families after the situation in the dam basin and downstream areas was declared a state of disaster by President Mugabe.