Flood victim gets surveyed plot
Resettlement is a tough beginning as can be evidenced from
some of the flood victims, who have secured surveyed plots in
Mabwepande, Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Salaam . Mr Juma Ndauka has a
cause to smile. He is one of the
beneficiaries of free surveyed plots
offered by the government.
This is after he and his family were
internally displaced from their house,
which was submerged in floods during
the heavy rain in 2011.
The timely intervention by the
government is in line with the Southern
African Development Community (Sadc)
guidelines that urges member states to
provide all necessary support to those
affected by natural disasters such as
floods and drought.
For example, to promote systemic
regional integration and sustainable
development, Sadc ministers responsible
for disaster risk management directed
the Sadc secretariat to develop a
comprehensive regional disaster risk
reduction strategy, which should include
regional response mechanisms and a
humanitarian assistance framework.
They also agreed to the establishment of
a regional disaster preparedness and
response fund and development of an
integrated early warning system to
ensure effective information
dissemination on hazards faced by the
region.
The government of Tanzania being Mr
aligned with this agreement helped
Ndauka, who resides in Manzese, Dar es
Salaam, to relocate after he was forced
to flee his home in the middle of the
night, following a five-day rainstorm,
which caused his house and that of his
neighbours to be submerged in floods.
He was allocated half an acre of the
surveyed plot by the government on
which he said he would first build a
temporary house for his family before
erecting a permanent house in the
future.
“I believe that my family and I can now
sleep at night and not worry whether it’s
raining cats and dogs outside,” he said.
According to him, it was a nightmare,
when the rainstorm destroyed all family
property, was submerged in water and
they had to vacate their house to save
their lives.
Tanzania expects to relocate more people
to safer grounds to save lives.
The government started the process of
allocating free surveyed plots in 2011 to
at least 1,004 Dar es Salaam victims,
whose houses were flooded.
The exercise has been ongoing and more
people are expected to be allocated
surveyed plots by the government.
However, despite the government’s
effort some people defied the exercise
and continued residing in valleys of
which at the beginning of this year, the
government embarked on an operation
to demolish the houses of those still
residing in flood prone areas.
The exercise started in December 2015
targeting over 8,000 houses built along
Msimbazi Valley and others in
prohibited areas such as open or
reserved spaces and those built without
proper plans.
There was a public outcry from the
residents claiming that former President
Jakaya Kikwete promised that each of
them could get surveyed plots, thus
expressing shock that their houses were
now being pulled down before the
promise was fulfilled.
However, Dar es Salaam Regional
Commissioner Said Meck Sadiki was
quoted saying that the authorities had
not reserved any land for city residents,
whose houses were demolished along
Msimbazi Valley.
He stressed that the plots had been
allocated to flood victims three years ago
in Mabwepande, but did not include
people facing ongoing demolitions.
Tanzania has aligned the Sadc Disaster
Management Agreement that requires
member states to prioritise disaster risk
management programmes with adequate
funding and ensure mainstreaming of
disaster risk reduction in all sectors.
“Following the Sadc agreement, the
government has awarded free surveyed
plots to all people, who owned properties
in the flooded areas and ordered those,
who had leased out not to renew their
contracts,” he said.
He noted that following the Sadc
agreement, the government was
implementing some initiatives related to
disasters, including construction of
drainage systems to prevent floods.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday
said the Controller and Auditor General
(CAG) would conduct a special
investigation on the allocation of plots in
Mabwepande to the flood victims of 2011
in Dar es Salaam to see if there was any
foul play in grabbing plots meant for
resettling those to whom land had been
allocated in Msimbazi River Valley,
particularly those in Jangwani and
Kinondoni Mkwajuni.
Over 70 per cent of members of the
public live on slums of which only 5 per
cent have access to formal drainage
systems.
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