By Paidashe Mandivengerei
Cyclone Idai survivors in the Eastern parts of the country need to be educated on disaster preparedness so as to avoid future catastrophe, University of Zimbabwe (UZ)’s Religious Studies Professor Nisbert Taringa has suggested.
Earlier this year in March, the tropical storm wreaked havoc in Chimanimani and Chipinge areas.
The property was damaged and over 200 deaths were recorded while hundreds of more people are still missing.
While warnings had been sent out by the government, people were either hesitant or ill-equipped to evacuate the affected Manicaland areas.
Speaking at a United Nations (UN) panel discussion, Thursday, Professor Taringa said organisations that are visiting the cyclone Idai victims should educate them on natural disasters in order to avoid life and property losses in future.
“The issue of cyclone Idai is an unfortunate one because that disaster happened but the disaster was predictable of which we should have expected that something should have been done before the communities were impacted but now it has happened there have been numerous losses in terms of human life, material losses, economic losses and infrastructure.
“Those many organisations that are now stressing the communities are supposed to be there because disaster reduction is about taking action so that we may avoid future vulnerabilities, we may prevent future harm to the communities so I think this is the right time to go out to the communities and train them, encourage them as well.”
Taringa added it was necessary for the victims to also make use of traditional information in dealing with and avoiding the problems that come with the devastating effects of cyclones.
“They have the capacity as they can also use their indigenous knowledge systems we dont know when another disaster will affect them so it is necessary to capacitate them to avoid future vulnerabilities,” he said.