Govt to relocate disaster prone communities
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) says it is liaising with local leaders and councils to relocate residents in disaster prone areas.
The department’s director for preparedness and response the Reverend Moses Chimphepo disclosed this to the media on Friday when Dodma received 4 000 relief food packs worth K60.5 million from National Aids Commission (NAC).
The handover took place at Dodma’s Midima Warehouse in Blantyre.
He said: “As government, that was our call for quite a long time and now we will help to facilitate the relocation.
“So, currently we are working on land identification and for those in Chiradzulu where a whole village was swept away, land has already been identified at part of Mikolongwe”.
But Chimphepo said while they will facilitate the relocation, there is need for other partners to join the cause.
He said partners and stakeholders such as ministries of Education, Health and Water and Sanitation should join them to ease the exercise.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday last week also tipped the Malawi Government on relocating people from disaster prone areas to avert future calamities.
NAC board commissioner Maclan Kankhomba in a separate interview said their assessment shows that 174 594 people living with HIV were affected.
“As NAC, we did Cyclone Freddy impact assessment which revealed that many people living with HIV were affected; hence, we decided to support their recovery efforts,” he said.
Kankhomba said seven of the 15 affected district councils have high HIV prevalence ranging from 17 percent to 20 percent above the national average prevalence of eight percent.
He said the councils include Zomba, Blantyre, Chiradzulu, Thyolo, Mulanje and Phalombe.
Cyclone Freddy made a landfall in southern Malawi on March 12 and triggered mudslides, floods and heavy rainfall which destroyed numerous infrastructure, killing 676 people and injuring 2 171 others.
While 537 people are still considered missing, the cyclone also displaced 659 278 people.
These displaced people were living in 747 evacuation camps, some of which Dodma has decommissioned.
Blantyre was the most affected council with 434 586 people affected followed by Mulanje with 362 135, Phalombe with 258 537, Mangochi with 230 373 and Chiradzulu with 191 883.
