Govt to deliver relief food to Itezhi-Tezhi district

–Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President Davies Mwango has assured Itezhi tezhi chiefs that government will soon deliver relief food to all hunger- stricken chiefdoms in Itezhi tezhi district.

Mr Mwango made the assurance yesterday when he visited Chiefs Musungwa and Shezongo during his mission to assess the extent of hunger in various chiefdoms of the district.

He said that government has responded urgently to various requests from chiefs in the district over the hunger situation and will soon send relief food to avert the problem.

 Mr. Mwango also said that government is moving away from just mitigating impacts of disasters to being proactive against disasters.

“We have received numerous reports  from  various chiefdoms in the district about the looming hunger due to  bad crop yield caused by inadequate rains and wild animals that have been grazing on the fields,” he said.

Mr. Mwango informed the chiefs that very soon officers from his office will be deployed to the district to carry out a head count in order to ascertain the number of hunger-affected households.

“We have seen for ourselves how poor yield in most fields and soon we are going to send officers to carry out a head count so we can have a rough idea of the quantity of relief food needed,” Mr.  Mwango said.

In one of the fields which was visited, more than ten hectares of maize had almost nothing or little cobs on the maize plants.

And Chief Musungwa attributed the hunger situation to poor rains and heavy grazing by elephants in the district.

Chief Musungwa further thanked the Minister for the quick response by government on their requests for relief maize.