Government banks on partners
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe says Malawi is banking on the goodwill of partners to help reconnect millions of people cut off from essential services by the impact of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
During an assessment of damaged roads in three of the affected districts in the Southern Region, namely Chikwawa, Mulanje and Thyolo, he said preliminary findings show that about 43 bridges and roads have been damaged and will require “billions of Malawi kwacha to build back”.
Gwengwe fell short of giving a specific figure in terms of the actual cost to build back the infrastructure, indicating that the exact cost would be known in two weeks’ time.
He said the rebuilding process will not be done within weeks because Treasury needs to find funds which development partners have pledged.
The minister said: “Development partners are willing to support us. On the 14th [this month], the government wrote a letter of request to the World Bank and it responded.
“Afreximbank has [also] responded that they will support us. The African Development Bank [AfDB] will be approving money for humanitarian support, but beyond that they have some money for rebuilding.
“We are looking for partners as we build back even if [they] are soft loans.”
Gwengwe said the impact of Cyclone Freddy will shake Malawi’s economy for some time, saying the economy was already not stable following the effects of previous cyclones, namely Idai, Gombe and Ana, which had a huge impact on the economy.
He said that the government’s priority for now will be connectivity as diversions will be constructed to ensure that people are connected.
Last month, a World Bank Transport Infrastructure Sector Assessment Programme report showed that to maintain the current roads, the country needs $166 million (about K168 billion) per year.
In Chikwawa, Sekeni and Namikalango bridges are both cut off while in Thyolo, Msuwazi bridge is also damaged just like Thuchila Bridge in Mulanje.
Roads Authority director of maintenance Engineer Florence Ndenguma said Namikalango Bridge alone will require about K2 billion to rehabilitate, but for now they are working on a diversion to connect people of Nsanje.
She said contractors were already on site on some damaged roads in Zomba and Mangochi to fix them.
Said Ndenguma: “I also need to say that we need stakeholders’ effort when it comes to maintaining our bridges because in some places you would see people farming near such structures, a thing which is affecting our bridges. If this is addressed, I am sure our bridges will properly be maintained.”
Thomson Banda, a businessperson at Nkando Trading Centre in Mulanje, asked authorities to speed up the work to fix Thuchila Bridge as they are spending a lot of money to hire people when moving goods to nearby markets.
“We are paying these boys to help us in crossing our goods from Blantyre or Mulanje. This is a business bridge and it should be fixed as soon as possible,” he said.
So far, 12 districts in the Southern Region are hugely affected by Cyclone Freddy which landed on Friday 10th March.
As of yesterday, 499 people have been confirmed dead. The number of people missing has jumped to 427 from 349.
Department of Disaster Management also confirmed that 508 288 people are displaced as 534 camps have been erected to accommodate the displaced people. The number of people injured is now at 1 332.
