A report says resources necessary to respond to the estimated 1.97 million people identified as food insecure in Malawi are available; hence, humanitarian assistance is expected to continue as planned through March 2013.
A December 31 2012 report by the Famine Early Warning System Network (Fews Net) indicates that the improved assistance outlook is likely to prevent crisis and emergency food insecurity outcomes initially projected for the South for January-March 2013.
Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation coordinator James Chiusiwa, while welcoming the news on Thursday, said he could not immediately comment because he had been out of office.
Reads a Fews Net report: “Food insecurity in the areas of concern in southern Malawi and parts of central Malawi where humanitarian assistance has started is improving due to the roll-out of the assistance programming.
“Fews Net expects that the food security situation in southern Malawi will significantly improve.”
Meanwhile, an analysis of the onset of the rainfall season shows that there was a delay in the start of rains in southern Malawi and the total rainfall was less than 75 percent of the average across the country between October and November.
The Department of Climate Change Management Services has projected average to above-average rainfall for the overall 2012/13 season. This forecast could likely result in flooding in flood prone areas throughout the country.
Flooding could leave some roads impassable, delaying humanitarian food assistance as well as commercial food commodity distributions in some areas of concern, observes Fews Net.
