Authority courts local structures on Lake Malawi’s rising water
National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) has urged people living along Shire River banks and Lake Malawi shores to take precautionary measures ahead of projections that the country will receive heavy rainfall in the next hydrological year.
The authority’s senior civic education and public relations officer Masozi Kasambala said this on Monday in Mangochi during an engagement with area development committees in the district.
“We want the committees to relay the message to the communities so that we save lives and property due to accidents that can result from rising of water in the Shire River and Lake Malawi,” he said.
Kasambala said the engagement with the community structures was part of activities the authority has planned to reach out to people in flood-prone areas to advise them to relocate.
Mangochi Municipal Council chief executive officer Ernest Kadzokoya appealed to the structures to disseminate correct information regarding rising of water in the two water bodies.
On his part, Mangochi District Council director of planning and development Newton Munthali said the structures will be instrumental in raising awareness on the dangers of doing activities closer to the lake and the river.
“If they do not comply, the council will bear no costs and they should not come to government to claim anything,” he said.
Makanjira Area Development Committee chairperson Kate Saidi pledged to advise people who constructed along the lakeshore to relocate