Declare State of national disaster—Nankhumwa

Leader of Opposition in Parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa has asked government to declare a State of National Disaster as the cholera outbreak in the country has reached crisis proportions.

But Minister of Information and Digitasation Gospel Kazako on Monday said any call for State of National Disaster is the absolute legal authority of the State President.

He said: “We have one State President in this country and he is the one that has the power to decide on that and nobody else despite the level of power appetite they may have. He [President Lazarus Chakwera] makes decisions.”

In a statement issued on Sunday, Nankhumwa said as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, he is convinced that Malawi is facing a crisis as hospitals are overwhelmed with patients against an acute lack of medicine and personnel to cope with the situation.

He said: “The government should declare a State of National Disaster as hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients against their clear lack of capacity; hence, the need for government’s urgent intervention.”

Citing his tour of some cholera treatment centres in Blantyre, Nankhumwa said he witnessed patients sleeping on the floor unattended due to lack of intravenous therapy, which is critical to treating cholera, adding that he was informed that guardians were sleeping in the open for four to five days due to lack of shelters.

As of yesterday, there were 17 824 cholera cases and 595 deaths, according to Ministry of Health.

In the statement, Nankhumwa further observed that this year’s Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) has collapsed, a situation, which may lead to hunger in the next season.

He cited the reliance on donated fertiliser as one of the reasons for the collapse of AIP this year.

Nankhumwa said: “The reasons for the collapse of AIP this year are well-known. The money that Parliament allocated as budget for AIP was stolen, and instead, the country is waiting for donated fertiliser from Russia and Morocco, which will only arrive in the country next month, February.

“As Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, I visited the Smallholder Farmers Fertiliser Revolving Fund of Malawi warehouses in Blantyre on Friday, December 30 2022. I can confirm that the organisation only has a meagre 50 500 metric tonnes of fertiliser, which is a very small amount compared to the demand on the ground.”

He has since urged the government to consider targeted food distributions to the ultra-poor, saying the outbreak and hunger is a double whammy that could soon become a national tragedy.