The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has said it will issue more contracts for transporting relief maize by rail having noted benefits of moving maize by rail from Lilongwe to the Eastern region.
Speaking when he witnessed the delivery of maize by rail at Liwonde Admarc in Machinga, Dodma director of disaster preparedness and response Moses Chimphepo said Dodma is saving one third of what it could have spent to transport the maize using trucks. Dodma is also able to move huge volumes at a time which will see it supporting more people in good time.
He said the current contract for rail is 4000 metric tonnes of maize to the Eastern region but Dodma is considering having more maize transported by rail from strategic grain reserves in Lilongwe to the Eastern region and Southern region.
“Railway is one of the most reliable and cheaper means of transportation. Now that the railway line is working in the country, we thought we should make use of this to move the maize in bulk at one time. Within a short time we have moved over 1000 metric tonnes of maize and we will be able to reach people with maize in good time,” said Chimphepo.
Machinga district commissioner Roderick Mateauma has hailed Dodma for using rail saying, by moving maize in huge quantities, beneficiaries of the maize in the district will receive the maize in good time.
“In Machinga alone 80 000 plus households have been affected by this hunger and this is the population that is going to be assisted in this lean season response.
The situation is not that good, you might have heard alot about Machinga.
“But we are grateful now that since the month of October we started receiving relief and that most of the communities, those that are benefiting, have already received in the month of October,” said Mateauma.
Dodma has reached to about 1.1million households with relief under the hunger response program. The program is targeting 1.265 million households. The program runs from October to March but Dodma started the distribution in September to ensure that people that need assistance in October get the support on time.
