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Namibia: Camping out by the Zambezi

by Solveig Olafsdottir in Caprivi


The women and children seem to be swept towards the tented camps by the strong current of air caused by the helicopter's blades. Clutching blankets and bundles containing their modest belongings, there is fear written all over their face.

Happy to have emerged unscathed from their first helicopter ride and to now have their feet back on solid ground, they have little idea what is waiting for them in the evacuation site of Lusese, in the north-eastern Caprivi district of Namibia.

They have been airlifted out of the deep waters of the Zambezi River, which has slowly but surely been swallowing their homes and fields since it burst its banks in mid-March.

Although the scene may seem chaotic, the new arrivals are swiftly sorted by Namibia Red Cross volunteers, who immediately direct them to the registration desk. Here they receive all the necessary information, a tent for accommodation and two weeks supply of food.

They are also welcomed by the community already living in Lusese, and neighbours who have arrived earlier at the camp. In no time, their tent has been erected, a fire is going and they are settling into their new life, which will most likely continue for the next three months until the flood water recedes.

Lusese is one of four evacuation sites the Namibian Government has designated for some 5,000 flood victims in the Kabbe and Katima rural constituencies of Caprivi.

Hosting some 1,300 people, the camps do not provide easy living conditions. The land is sandy and barren, and water has to be trucked in from the nearest town, Katima Mulilo, and stored in Red Cross bladder tanks.

But importantly, Lusese is on high ground. Here people are safe from the floods and the threats posed by contaminated water.

The other sites are Kasika, where some 700 people are hosted, and the two islands of Schuckmansburg, hosting 600 people, and Impalila Island, with close to 500 evacuees.

People have either been airlifted in with the assistance of the Zimbabwe Air force, which provided two helicopters for the operation, or by boats from the Namibian government. Given the vastness of the floods, and the shallow waters, the evacuation operation is not an easy task.

Establishing the camps has required a tireless effort from the Namibia Red Cross staff and volunteers, and the Regional Disaster Response Team (RDRT). It took some time to convince the affected population that it was dangerous staying put on small isolated islands, formed as the water engulfed the flood plains of the Zambezi.

Gathering them in a few places has made it much easier to provide them with necessary assistance such as shelter, water and sanitation facilities, health services and food. The Authorities have tried to keep families, neighbours and schoolmates together in the same evacuation sites to make the resettlement easier.

Josephine Kamwi waited until the last moment to leave her home with her four children, fearing that it would be vandalized if she left it unattended.

"I stayed there for two weeks, in the water," she explains. "The school had closed down, and the children had no playground except for going into the water, which was full of crocodiles. We were surrounded by water. In the end, the house fell apart."

Only then did she decide to leave for the camp at Impalila Island. First, she had to get herself and the children by canoes to Muzi, where a police boat was waiting to ferry her family of five together with 22 other people from neighbouring villages.

They had only been going for a little while, when the engine broke down. They paddled for two hours, but then almost got caught by a strong current in the river and just managed to catch the river bank before the boat was swept away.

"I felt so scared," says Josephine. "We had many children in the boat and it was getting dark. We had no torch, no light and there was water all around."

The policemen accompanying them fired 16 alarm shots into the air, but to no avail. They waited for hours, not knowing what would happen. Finally the owner of Impalila Lodge came to their rescue. It was almost midnight when they arrived at the evacuation site, where the Red Cross camp managers had been waiting for the boat for more than six hours.

"We thought we had lost them. We had no way of communicating with them and did not know what had happened," says Polly Helmut, a member of the RDRT members and Caprivi provincial manager of the Namibia Red Cross. "The river is full of crocodiles, and there are hippos around. We did not know what to expect,".

It had been a difficult night for the Red Cross team. In an earlier evacuation trip, 20 unaccompanied minors arrived without anyone to take care of their needs.

"There was nothing else to do, but to cook for them, and get them sorted out until their parents arrived," says Polly.

The Red Cross team, consisting of four RDRT-trained staff from the Namibia Red Cross, one from the Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross, and supported by the Federation's regional disaster response and water and sanitation officers, has worked around the clock to ensure that the relocated population is provided with adequate living conditions and sufficient access to clean water.

"This has been very challenging and required a lot of improvising," says an exhausted but satisfied Agrippah Anganile, the regional water and sanitation officer. "We have faced different difficulties in each and every site."

In Lusese, the sandy soil posed a real problem when digging for latrines, as they filled up overnight. In Kasika, portable toilets had to be installed, since providing pit latrines for a big influx of people on such a small island could easily have contaminated the ground water table.

On Impalila Island, the soil was too rocky and hard for any digging, so the latrines were built above ground, using the stones for construction. There, the only water source is the river water, but all evacuees are provided with sufficient water purification sachets and trained in using the chemicals to avoid outbreak of waterborne diseases.

At the onset of the emergency, Namibia Red Cross and the Federation's regional delegation in Harare urgently dispatched relief items to the affected area in response to the immediate needs of the flood victims - providing them with shelter, blankets and mosquito nets. Furthermore, the RDRT team, which was operational on the ground by 29 March, was instrumental in organizing the evacuation sites by erecting tents in the camps, building sanitary facilities and supplying clean water to the relocated population.

Red Cross staff and volunteers have been trained in providing health and hygiene education, which will also be available through the local radio in the languages of the region.

The RDRT handed over the operations to the Namibia Red Cross on 30 April, which will continue with distribution of relief items and management of services required. The Red Cross operation aims to provide shelter, water and sanitation facilities, blankets, mosquito nets and pesticides to the evacuated population, as well as water purification sachets to the other 15,000 people affected by the floods.

The Zambezi has caused havoc further downstream in Zambia. There, the Zambia Red Cross is assisting some 20,000 people in the districts of Sesheke, Zambezi and Chavuma by providing them with non-food relief items and hygiene promotion.