Govt’s relief efforts hailed

CEASAR MBEWE writes

VILLAGERS in Lumezi Valley, in Eastern Province, have hailed government for sending relief maize to the area to help avert hunger.
Lundazi District Commissioner, Jeanette Palukani, confirmed to the Sun that 2000 bags of maize were received from the Disaster Management Unit and were districted to people in the hunger ravaged Lumezi Valley area.
“Government has released 2000 bags of maize to help the starving villagers, especially in the valley where
people have been surviving on roots and wild fruits,” she said.
The district commissioner explained that most households in the Lumezi Valley were affected by the hunger
because they had sold their produce early to pay their children’s school fees.
One of the villagers,Thomas Gondwe, a father of 12 and has 2 wives, thanked government for quickly sending
relief food to the area.
“My family grows enough food but its different this time because the floods destroyed our fields resulting in
food shortages,” Mr Gondwe said.
According to Ms Palukani, the hunger in the district had reached an alarming level with a 25 kg bag of mealie
meal fetching as high as K150, the most expensive in the province.
Meanwhile, the district commissioner has disclosed that her office was working with the Ministry of Health, the
Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and the Disaster Management Unity (DMU) to control the spread of the Foot
and Mouth disease which has broken out in the area.
She said that the sale and movement of meat products have so far been banned to try and contain the
outbreak believed to have been spead by illegal cattle traders from Tanzania.
“We have decided to ban the sale of meat products in order to try and control the outbreak,” Ms Palukani said.
The district commissioner said that 600 heards of cattle had so far been dioagnosed wit the dideases.