Learning the hard way

In Malawi, disasters have become more frequent and devastating with climate change.

The country is particularly prone to flooding, cyclones and prolonged dry spells.

Natural disasters claimed 2 596 lives from 21.7 million affected people between 1997 and 2008, reports the World Bank.

The report shows that the country is particularly vulnerable not only because it sits in the disaster-prone Great African Rift Valley but also due to rapid population growth, unsustainable urbanisation, poor settlement patterns, weak buildings and low awareness of disaster risks.

Malawi had experienced at least 19 major floods and seven droughts within five decades, reported the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) after Cyclone Idai in 2019.

The department ranks about 15 of the country’s 28 districts as flood-prone.

However, the entire Southern Region was ravaged by cyclones Ana and Gombe in 2022 as well as Freddy in March 2023.

Freddy alone claimed about 800 lives and displaced 700 000 families from about 2.3 million people affected.

As the frequency and severity of extreme weather increase, what has the country learnt from these disasters?

We visited Matsukambiya village Traditional Authority Ngabu in Chikwawa District, where flash floods forced survivors to flee their ancestral land surrounded by Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc’s Nchalo Estate.

“We were tired of being flood victims every season. We had to move upland,” says group village head Matsukambiya. 

For the past five years, her internally displaced community suffered flash floods that easily burst a mud dyke constructed by Illovo.

After spending over a year at Nchalo evacuation camp, they petitioned Chikwawa District Council to relocate them to Jombo area,

“We fled at night as the floods battered our homes. They washed away everything, including our livestock,” says Matsukambiya.

She thanks authorities for moving the prone population out of danger.

The new settlement is home to 383 households with at least 1 500 people.

They can now live in peace.

“Since our arrival last year, floods have become history,” she brags. “Freddy came and nobody was affected. Even when it’s raining, I sleep like a baby.”

The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Churches Action in Relief and Development are constructing 288 houses for the displaced community. The faith-based organisations also provide tools, construction materials and training so the community can build durable houses to withstand rainstorms and floods.

Defiya Binzi, a mother of five in Levi Village, mobilised bricks to build back better.

“Finally, I have a safe home. Every rainy season, I feared to lose my life and children,” she said.

The 40-year-old struggled to feed her family as floods wiped her crops away.

To reduce disasters, Chikwawa District Council last year relocated about 2 000 of the targeted 3000 households in flood hotspots in T/As Maseya, Lundu, Ngabu and Makhuwira.

“We’ve learnt the hard way, but the good news is that people are cooperating,” says district disaster risk management officer Humphrey Magalasi.

And Freddy affected slightly over a quarter of the count hit by Ana and Gombe.

“About 92 000 households were affected by cyclones in 2022, but Freddy affected about 25 000 households following the strategies,” says Magalasi.

The strategies included sending early warnings from the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services to prone communities.

“We send a team to alert people to move to safe zones,” Magalasi states.

The district has also introduced an assessment tool to capture data accurately when disaster strikes.

District social welfare officer Aaron Macheka says the district was struggling to gather and segregate data, including the count of the elderly, persons with disability, pregnant women and children affected.

Malawi signed the United Nations’ Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The seven-point treaty promotes preventive measures that reduce disaster-related deaths, economic losses and damage to critical infrastructure.

Dodma spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula says frequent disasters have exposed the need for an all-inclusive approach and collaboration to build community resilience and reduce disasters.

“The country will keep spending billions responding to perennial disasters if we slow down on relocating people to safer places,” he says.

Dodma has facilitated the relocation of over 3 500 of the 5 000 households earmarked for relocation from Makhanga floodplain to Osiyana hills in T/A Mlolo, Nsanje.

Malawi Red Cross Society spokesperson Felix Washoni says apart from putting people out of harm’s way, the country needs to strengthen the early warning systems to reduce human suffering, loss and damage during emergencies.”n

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