Muluzi, JB lobby for total relocation of flood survivors

Two of the country’s former presidents Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda, wearing hats of Cyclone Freddy goodwill ambassadors, have called for total relocation of people living in disaster-prone areas.

The duo was speaking to the media in Blantyre yesterday after a meeting with Blantyre District and City council officials and other stakeholders on the post-disaster recovery.

The stakeholders agreed that cyclone survivors leaving camps must not be allowed to go back and rebuild in areas such as Soche and Mpingwe mountains or along river banks and other flood-prone areas.

In his brief, Muluzi said it is imperative that people enjoy their rights with responsibilities by not encroaching mountains and hills.

“People must be moved from such dangerous places, whether it means using force, we cannot continue to lose people during disasters as was the case during Cyclone Freddy,” he said.

Banda, on her part, said as goodwill ambassadors they will be working with chiefs and service providers such as Blantyre Water Board and Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi to ensure that services are not provided in such areas.

She said: “The people must be supported to get land elsewhere. Police, Judiciary, Chiefs, Forestry Department and district commissioners must ensure that people are moving out of such places and those leaving camps are not going back to their former places.”

During the briefing, Malawi Red Cross Society communications and resource mobilisation specialist Felix Washon urged authorities to enforce relocation.

“We need to get serious in resolving this challenge. Recovery packages should be given only to the people that are moving to safer places,” he said.

Blantyre City Council chief executive officer Denis Chinseu said they are engaging the Ministry of Lands and the Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) to identify land for the relocation of the people.

He said: “There are discussions underway and there are indications that we will be given a piece of land where we will begin from.

“We will also map the mountains and hills that have been encroached to identify which places are proper for settlement or not and make plans on how the people can be relocated.”

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) said currently, it requires about K1.1 billion for the resettlement exercise for displaced people.

Dodma commissioner Charles Kalemba said earlier they plan to give each household a package that can see them through the next four to six months.

The package will include an unspecified amount of money, food and seeds for winter cropping.

Over 2.5 million people were affected by the cyclone with 676 confirmed deaths, over 660 000 displaced, 537 people missing, and 44 roads damaged while countless bridges, health infrastructure and crops were washed away.

As goodwill ambassadors Muluzi and Banda will also engage in sensitisation meetings with people in cyclone-affected areas to facilitate the provision of food and building of new houses for settlement.

President Lazarus Chakwera appointed Muluzi and Banda as goodwill ambassadors on Cyclone Freddy response on February 23 this year when the three met at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre to map out the recovery path from Cyclone Freddy damage.