Only 7 civil protection employees to service Zimbabwe

via Only 7 civil protection employees to service Zimbabwe October 28, 2014

ZIMBABWE’S poor state of disaster preparedness came under the spotlight last week after it emerged that the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) only had seven employees.

Opposition Zapu alternate secretary-general Strike Mkandla told guests attending a Mass Public Opinion Institute’s public discussion forum in Harare that the low staffing levels at CPU rendered the department ineffective.

The meeting debated several issues ranging from the political and economic situation, climate change, infrastructural development, opportunities and constraints.

“The Civil Protection Unit in Zimbabwe has seven workers to service the whole of the country and it says a lot in terms of problems in our capacity to deal with disaster risk, protection and management,” Mkandla said.

“We have not even heard how much resources have been channelled to climate change and the question is why has it taken 34 years since independence for us to have climate change policies?” Mkandla queried.

“Policies are not the answer themselves — there is need for application of the law, observance of laws, as well as climate change strategies that will benefit from devolution of power and allow different regions to manage their environment.”

Environment, Water and Climate ministry principal climate change research officer Elisha Moyo said Zimbabwe now needed to consider insurance individually and as a nation due to threats of climate change issues such as hailstorms, floods, very high temperatures and others.

“As we plan our industries, we need to have climate change issues in mind. Delayed rains, dry storms, prolonged winters or summers — all these challenges are to increase and we are moving forward to bad climate where about 255 million people in Africa will be affected by water issues by 2020,” Moyo said.

Bulawayo South MP Eddie Cross (MDC-T) said Parliament had let people down by failing to adequately discuss issues to do with climate change.