Residents of flood affected areas pivotal to success of relief efforts

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. This was said by Celestin Twahirwa, an official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in charge of disaster management 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 destroyed included 107 classrooms and over 1,000 homes in the Eastern and Western Provinces, a Rwanda National Police structure and several other infrastructures. “The residents in the affected areas have been mobilised to be very active in the recovery of their areas instead of relying on government and aid organisations to help them; as a result, the iron sheets donated to the affected households have been used in the reconstruction process,” he said. He also pointed out that local corporate organisations like Care Rwanda and Office for National Tourism Protection (ORTPN) had contributed to the process. “Out of the 4,400 iron sheets required for the destroyed houses in both Kirehe and Rubavu Districts; we only lack 370 iron sheets which we are confident of getting soon,” Twahirwa said. According to Twahirwa, the United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF) 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. Ends