Floods kill 8 in Malawi

Floods have washed away eight people in Malawi since the onset of the 2016/17 rainfall season currently underway.

The latest incidents have been recorded in Neno and Lilongwe districts while other casualties have been registered in Mzimba, Phalombe, Dowa and Blantyre districts, according to police.

In Phalombe, police spokesperson Augustus Nkhwazi said a 10-year-old girl drowned on Monday in Phalombe River where she was swimming alongside her friends.

He said her body was later found floating after her friends noted that she was not coming out of the river and had reported the matter to elders.

In Neno, two children—both aged three—were  washed away by rains as they crossed Thang’ande Stream in Jamu Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mlauli in the district on Sunday, according to Neno Police Station spokesperson Raphael Kaliati.

He identified the two as Aufi Chiwembu and Benina Matemba. He said only Chiwembu’s body has been recovered, adding that a search for Matemba’s body was underway.

Said Kaliati: “The two children, together with their two relations Elina Chembekezo [five] and Elisa Chiwembu [six], followed their grandfather to the garden, but he asked them to return home since it was lunch time.

“On their way back from the garden, it started raining heavily that they found Thang’ande Stream full and the two other older children managed to cross but Chiwembu and Matemba could not make it and they were washed away by the water.”

In Lilongwe, a 37-year-old man identified as Hati Mdawali drowned in Mchezi River in the district.

Kanengo Police Station spokesperson Alfred Chimthere alleged that the victim was under the influence of alcohol when he attempted to take a bath in the river.

A similar incident was also registered in last week Blantyre where a woman identified as Aida Mtwana, believed to be in her 40s, drowned after she failed to cross a flooded Mbame River at Malowa Village in T/A Somba’s area. She was reported to have been coming from her garden, police said.

Blantyre Police Station assistant spokesperson Andrew Mayawo said Mtwana was swept away by the waters and her body was found downstream hours later.

However, Mayawo said this is a third case to be registered in Blantyre since the beginning of the rains.

Meanwhile, no drowning incident has been registered in the flood-prone district of Nsanje since the rains started, according to Nsanje district commissioner (DC) Gift Rapozo in a telephone interview yesterday.

The situation is similar in Nsanje’s neighbouring Chikwawa where DC Bester Mandere said they are still assessing damages.

However, both Mandere and Rapozo said their areas are receiving rains.

In Karonga, another district usually affected by flooding, no drowning fatality has been registered, according to a report released last week Wednesday.

But the report said 294 households have been affected in the areas of Paramount Chief Kyungu and Senior Chief Wasambo.

When contacted to give a national picture of the disasters to date, Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) spokesperson Jeremiah Mphande said he would only be able to provide the comprehensive details today.

In the past two years, Malawi have been hit by floods. The country experienced one of its worst natural disasters in January 2015 when floods displaced thousands and killed over 200 people nationwide. At least 15 of the country’s 28 districts were worst hit, prompting President Peter Mutharika to make an international appeal for relief and food aid. n