President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has called on regional councillors and traditional leaders to urgently register flood victims whose mahangu fields are submerged in water.

The call follows the president's visit to flood relocation centres in the Ohangwena region.

President Nandi-Ndaitwah toured the Oshikango warehouse to assess food storage in the depot.

Thereafter, she proceeded to two of the six flood relocation centres in the region.

The regional leadership provided an update that the water levels in the affected areas remain high and the number of flood victims continues to increase.

Ohangwena is the hardest hit by the floods, affecting five constituencies.

Currently, one thousand and seventy-five flood victims are accommodated at the relocation camps, from 202 households.

Of these, one hundred and sixty-two are children under the age of five, 61 are breastfeeding mothers, and 13 are pregnant women.

President Nandi-Ndaitwah says assisting the displaced communities should be a shared responsibility.

"I thought this year we would not talk about drought relief food because we received good rainfall. It has also brought along relish; we can catch it and preserve it to eat throughout the year, so let us use the produce from our fields to sustain ourselves to avoid dependency syndrome."

Nandi-Ndaitwah then called on people who have settled in flood-prone areas to consider moving to higher ground for their safety.

"And really to impress upon our citizens that they should avoid being relocated and relocate themselves to put up their houses in areas where they know that water runs – that is what I have to impress upon them and see if there are areas in good time for them to relocate so that we do not continuously have the problem of people affected by floods when we know we can find a solution."

Challenges cited at the relocation centres include the slow delivery of mahangu and maize meal from suppliers, insufficient mattresses and mosquito nets, and mobile ablution facilities.