Over 78 primary schools have been turned into shelters to accommodate people whose homes have been washed away by floods which also claimed about 200 lives in Malawi.
According to Mr. Chris Chisoni, the National Secretary for Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace CCPJ, in the history of Malawi, there have been floods from time to time but not of the same magnitude as the one that was recently witnessed. “In the preceding 10 years, Malawi has witnessed erratic rains with droughts here and there. We could hear of flooding in some districts along the main river banks and lake shores but not in the cities,” he said.
Chisoni said that lots of livestock and household properties have been washed away and houses have fallen down in the urban area and cities such as Lilongwe, Zomba and Blantyre, a scenario that has never been witnessed before.
“It has been a maximum disaster that led the state president to declare a state of disaster for all the over 18 districts affected,” he said adding that “This has been a huge cyclone whereby we are told that crops worth 3.5 billion Malawi Kwacha (approximately 8.7 million US$) have been washed away and livestock worth over 6 billion Malawi Kwacha (approximately 15 million US$) has been washed away especially in the lower escarpment in the lower states of Shire River, which is the main river from Lake Malawi and is perceived to be a flood prone area.”
The Diocese of Chikwawa was hugely affected by the flood and there are some parishes that Christians are failing to meet for prayers because their communities have been displaced, the roads and bridges destroyed by the floods.
Chisoni explained that the caritas commission for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi quickly sent an appeal to different caritas members and different development partners to support the course for the provision of relief services like food, shelter, blankets, and even clothing and utensils and the response has been quite good.
He said that the government of Malawi also mobilized resources of its own and managed to consolidate over 1.5 billion Malawi Kwacha (approximately 3.7 million US$) which has been distributed to the victims.
“UNDP has had a very huge program seeking to coordinate efforts from all development partners to direct the resources directly by themselves to the community or via nongovernmental organizations,” he said.
By AMECEA Online News Reporter