Residents of flood affected areas pivotal to success of relief efforts

Residents of flood affected areas pivotal to success of relief efforts
BY GEORGE KAGAME

The medical and infra-structural efforts in rebuilding the lives of the victims affected by recent torrential rains in Rubavu and Kirehe districts have been efficient due to the diligence of the residents in those areas.


Celeste Twahirwa, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officer charged with disaster management in the country commended the residents in an exclusive interview on Sunday.


Twahirwa was giving updates concerning the victims of the rains which left school students as well as many other people in Rubavu admitted after suffering injuries from the destruction of housing structures caused by the floods from the rains. Among the physical infrastructure razed to the ground included 107 classrooms and over 1000 homes in the Eastern and Western Provinces, a Rwanda National Police structure and several other infrastructures.

Twahirwa said: "the residents in the affected areas have been mobilized to be very active in the recovery of their areas instead of relying on government and aid organizations to help them out solely, as result, the iron sheets donated to the affected households have been used in the reconstruction process,” he added that local corporate organizations like Care Rwanda and Office for National Tourism Protection-ORTPN had contributed to the process. Twahirwa also said that out of the 4400 iron sheets required for the destroyed houses in both Kirehe and Rubavu districts, "we are only lacking 370 iron sheets which we are confident of getting soon."

According to Twahirwa, UNICEF-United Nations Children and Education Fund-had offered to cater for the rehabilitation of all the affected schools in both districts and that all the people admitted to hospital because of the rains had been discharged save for two cases in Rubavu.

Rubavu has occasionally suffered at the hands of violent rains; the last rainy season back in May left two people dead and a cholera attack in the district.