Public infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Freddy in March 2023 risks further battering with the onset of the rainy season forecast to bring normal to above normal rainfall.
The Nation spot-checks is some of the districts hit by the disaster in March last year, notably Phalombe, Mulanje, Zomba, Chikwawa and Mangochi found that damaged public infrastructure such as school blocks, roads, bridges and health facilities are yet to be rehabilitated.
In Phalombe, Nkhulambe Health Centre, which was completely washed away, is yet to be constructed, forcing some patients to travel over 20 kilometres to access health services at John Chilembwe District Hospital in the district. However, Phalombe Health Centre, also damaged by the cyclone, is now fully operational.
in Blantyre
Elsewhere such as at Jombo, located between Nchalo and Ngabu trading centres in Chikwawa, where the road was cut off, the damaged area has only been filled with gravel while at Miseufolo, a temporary single lane bridge has been constructed.
In separate interviews, Zomba district commissioner Reinghard Chavula and her counterparts David Maxwell Gondwe of Mulanje and Mangochi acting DC Bissai Mtayamanja noted that the recovery rate has generally been slow. They feared that the forthcoming rain season would worsen the matter in their respective districts.
Chavula said at least 50 percent of the damaged infrastructure, including schools, roads and bridges has not been rehabilitated.
She said: “Most of the schools and roads that were damaged, particularly in rural areas, are still in bad state.”
Gondwe said despite the recovery rate being at about 55 percent in Mulanje, some areas such as Traditional Authority (T/A) Njema around Muloza, roads are still impassable.
On his part, Mtayamanja observed that the Mangochi-Makanjira Road was the most affected and that a number of bridges were washed away.
“Our worry is when the rains start the situation could be worse because most of the rivers have no bridges. We don’t know what will happen when rains come,” he said.
In a separate interview, Pholombe district information officer Linda Likomwa attributed the delays in rehabilitating Nkhulambe Health Centre to land scarcity in the area.
She said Phalombe District Council plans to relocate the health facility to an area not prone to flooding.
When contacted on the status of rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure, Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula asked for more time before commenting on the matter.
However, he is on record having said the department had already started preparing for the La Niña weather condition, particularly in the disaster-prone areas.
The Tropical Cyclone Freddy Emergency Response Plan that Dodma issued in March 2023 indicated that 624 schools, 63 health facilities and about 405 kilometres of roads were damaged. The government needed about K147.8 billion for recovery. Of the total amount, about K 29.58 billion was needed to fix the damaged roads.
