Harare — WARNINGS of the current rains continuing and causing floods should be taken seriously by those in areas prone to flooding.

The Civil Protection Unit and the Meteorological Services Department have been proactive by warning people in low-lying areas that the possibility of localised flooding was high given that the heavy rains which began last Thursday in most parts of the country will continue falling.

In 2007, floods killed several people and left more than 600 families homeless while hundreds of livestock were swept away.

There is absolutely no reason for a repeat of the 2007 scenario, especially in view of the timeous warning.

More campaigns should be carried in the electronic media, particularly radio, which reaches more people to prevent human lives and livestock being lost to floods.

Community leaders from chiefs, Members of Parliament, councillors, village heads, schools staff, health centre personnel and the police could also be used to disseminate information on the dangers floods pose to human life, livestock and property.

Areas that have been identified as danger zones include parts of Matabeleland North and South, Bulawayo, Midlands, Masvingo and Mashonaland West and Central provinces.

Motorists, drivers of public transport and pedestrians should refrain from crossing flooded rivers as taking such chances has often resulted in national disasters with buses or lorries being swept off bridges, killing hundreds of people.

Parents must be on the lookout for their children because dams, small rivers, ponds and wells will soon be full and the little ones should not be left unattended lest they decide to swim or accidentally fall into the water bodies and drown.

The CPU and the Met Department should be commended for the warnings they have already started issuing.

This is the way it should be rather than to wait until a tragedy has occurred.

It is also encouraging that the CPU has boosted its capacity to handle flood disasters after it received 30 satellite phones that will be used in disaster management and planning during the rainy season.

Government should keep striving to ensure such key institutions as the Met Department and the CPU are well equipped to forecast weather patterns and be able to react and save lives in the event of a disaster.

In an article posted on the Internet one writer wrote that water is one of the most useful things on earth.

We drink it, bathe in it, clean with it and use it to cook food.

Most of the time, it is completely benign.

But in large enough quantities, the very same stuff we use to rinse a toothbrush can overturn cars, demolish houses and even kill.

Flooding has claimed millions of lives in the last hundred years alone, more than any other weather phenomenon.

Inasmuch as we need water, we must also be alert to the dangers it may cause.