Flood victim’s cry for conjugal rights

News
Tokwe-Mukosi floods not only caused accommodation nightmare for evacuated villagers to Chingwizi transit camp but denied some of them their conjugal rights

THE Tokwe-Mukosi floods have not only caused an accommodation nightmare for displaced villagers who were evacuated to Chingwizi transit camp, but denied some of them their conjugal rights as parents share one tent with their children.

MOSES CHIBAYA OWN CORRESPONDENT A Chingwizi camp resident Irene Bvuwa summed it all up when she blantly declared that she was sexually starved.

“We are on punishment in the tents. I have a husband and six children and do you think I can get sex in such a situation?

“Tell us how we must cope. We tell them give us tents for children and tents for parents, but they can’t. How can I get sex in such a situation,” Bvuwa said.

“I came here on the 26th of February and up to today I am still on punishment. What can I do?”

She also complained of the food rations they were getting saying they were not enough.

“We are given 50kg of mealie-meal and one kg of beans. How do you balance that?”

Bvuwa also bemoaned the deaths of livestock at the camp.

“Even our livestock are dying on a daily basis while we are crowded here. We have water problems here too.

“Things are not well here and the authorities do not even have a solution.

“The toilets are only one metre deep. Is that a toilet? Can you use it at your home? To make matters worse, the toilets are used by all villagers,” Bvuwa said.

She said the government should relocate them to habitable settlements as a matter of urgency.

Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti said food reserves could only last up to the end of this month and they do not have sufficient food for April.

“This is our major challenge. Currently the food reserves that we have will only last up (to the end of) this month,” he said.

Bhasikiti said the government would be supporting all families at the transit camp for the next 12 months and warned that “we run the risk of starving the people”.

He said each family was getting 50kg of mealie-meal per month, a packet of matemba and beans but bigger families got 100kg of mealie-meal.