Uuvudhiya records nine veld fire outbreaks
ENGOMBE – The Uuvudhiya constituency in the Oshana region has experienced nine devastating outbreaks of veld fire in the past few months, which destroyed the constituency’s tracts of grassland, with the latest reported on Saturday.
Senior officer in the Forestry Directorate of the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Forestry in the region, Gervasius Uunona revealed this while speaking during a community meeting convened by the Oshana regional governor, Elia Irimari, to discuss the effects of the veld fire at the constituency on Monday.
The most devastating fire incident this year, Uunona said, took place at the constituency’s Onaushe village, where it has torched a large tract of grazing land, burned down several homesteads, silos and inflicted injuries to some animals.
In his remarks, Irimari warned that deliberate causing of veld fire in the area of Uuvudhiya will no longer be tolerated and anybody found guilty of burning and damaging grazing land in the area will in the future be brought to book.
“It is bothersome that people continue to cause veld fire year in, year out,” stated the governor, while at the same time reminding people of the severe drought situation experienced in the country last year, which left hundreds of cattle dead due to lack of good pasture.
Irimari described the constituency as the region’s “mining area”, which need to be developed into a modern animal husbandry centre to produce quality beef for the country and the market elsewhere on the globe.
Speaking at the same meeting, senior councillor for the Uukwambi Traditional Authority Kamulunga Shivute appealed to the local farmers, herders and everybody in the area to ensure no negligent handling of fire takes place in and around the constituency.
“Some people who deliberately cause the fire are known; report them to traditional authority so that they are punished for their deeds,” Shivute urged the Uuvudhiya community.
With the involvement of members of the Namibia Defence Force ( NDF), an outbreak of veld fire, which had started at the constituency’s Omapale area, was contained last week before reaching parts of the neighbouring regions of Omusati, Kunene and Oshikoto. - Nampa