Abandon mud houses, DC tells residents
Siavonga District Commissioner Lovemore Kanyama has urged Residents occuppying poorly constructed houses in the District to immediately vacate to better and more habitable homes.
Mr Kanyama said families in Kanyelele, Fishining camps, Matinangala and Kaleya compounds occupying mud houses, must relocate to better houses before the onset of heavy rains to avoid a repeat of last rain season when over 40 families were left homeless after their houses collapsed to due heavy rains.
“They must immediately vacate those houses as their lives are in great danger. We don’t want to experience what happened last year when four children of the same family died when the house they were sleeping in collapsed on them,” he said.
He said most houses in the mentioned areas are poorly constructed using mud bricks and described them as death traps not fit for inhabitation.
“I’m strongly urging them to move to better houses to avoid the loss of lives due to rains. Most of the houses in these compounds mentioned are made from mud bricks”
He said Government through his office and the local authority has been encouraging people in the area to develop a culture of constructing modern houses using cement blocks but that the advice has fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Kanyama further said Siavonga being a tourist town, there is need for people to develop the habit of constructing nice houses to beautify the resort town.
He warned that those disregarding the advise from the local authority and have continued building without approval from the District Council will soon be visited or risk their houses been demolished.
Last rain season about 45 houses collapsed in Siavonga district, claiming 4 people of the same family after the house they were sleeping in collapsed on them due to heavy rains.