Violent storms leave trail of destruction

VIOLENT storms recorded in parts of Manicaland early this week left a trail of destruction, with several schools having their roofs destroyed, while infrastructure was badly damaged.

The most affected districts are Buhera and Chipinge and the Manicaland Provincial Department of Civil Protection is on high alert.

In Buhera South, at Barura Primary School, a classroom block and staff accommodation apartments had their roofing material ripped off, while seven schools in Chipinge District that include Mutema, Maunganidze, Checheche, Chisavanye, St Peter’s and Machona primary schools as well as Checheche High School also suffered similar infrastructural damages.

Acting Manicaland Provincial Director (Local Government Services and Administration), Mr John Misi, confirmed the trial of destruction that was caused by violent storms, and urged communities to be vigilant in view of more storms that may occur.

“We are aware that some schools in Manicaland had their roofs ripped off following violent storms that accompanied the recent rains received in most parts of the country.

“We are on high alert as the provincial

Department of Civil Protection. In fact, this is happening after we had our contingency planning meeting as a province where each local authority and each district was told of the need to have a plan and a budget for such eventualities. During that contingency planning meeting, Disaster Risk Reduction mechanisms such as retro fitting (an assessment of community structures like roofing that should be strengthened if weak) and cleaning of culverts, among many other initiatives were taught in order to reduce destruction in the event of disasters.

“We have trained all communities across the province following lessons learnt from the Cyclone Idai. Every district was equipped with the basic skills and we want them to report, for example, the case of Buhera South where Barura Primary School’s classroom block and staff accommodation roofing material was damaged,” he said.

At least seven schools in Chipinge district were destroyed by a violent storm which hit the area last Sunday afternoon.

The violent storm also destroyed ZESA transmission lines and several shops at in place to save lives and property,” he said. Checheche Town Centre. Mr Mapfumo said the ministry is keen

In a separate interview, acting Chipinge to ensure that the infrastructure being District schools’ inspector, Mr Abson Mapfumo, constructed in schools is of the required said schools in standards. Chipinge District are “We have adopted vulnerable to bad the building back better weather due to aging method in refurbishing all infrastructure. damaged infrastructure.

Mr Mapfumo said This also applies to all new since Chipinge District infrastructure being constructed. is vulnerable to natural We want to modernise disasters, the ministry our schools through has capacitated school quality infrastructure. No heads, teachers, school structure should be erected development committee without inspection. members and “We have received a few learners on disaster reports highlighting the issue risk reduction. Scan to view video of bill of quantities of the

“At district level, we damaged property. We are have engaged the District Civil Protection also urging the schools to remove furniture Committee to intervene and assist the from the damaged infrastructure and put affected schools. We would like to encourage it in other rooms so that learning will not our school heads to report these mishaps in be disrupted when schools open in January time so that appropriate interventions are put next year.

“We also need to hold urgent meetings at the affected schools to find ways of raising resources to refurbish the damaged infrastructure before schools open,” he added.

Manicaland Provincial Education Director, Mr Edward Shumba, urged parents and the schools’ authorities to work together to refurbish the damaged infrastructure in order to maintain quality education in Manicaland.

“We call upon all stakeholders to come on board and assist in the refurbishment of the damaged infrastructure. We want to ensure that the quality of education in the province remainshigh. We want to uphold Manicaland’s education flag high, and as province we were impressed by the performance of our 2023 Grade Seven learners who scored big in the ZIMSEC national examinations. We had 790 six pointers in the ZIMSEC Grade Seven results. “This is a big achievement and when such destruction of infrastructure occurs, we all need to join hands to build back better all the damaged infrastructure,” he said.

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