Rainstorms kill 5, displace 450

Rainstorms coupled with lightning have killed five people and affected about 450 households in 11 of the country’s 28 districts, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has confirmed.

Dodma said two people died in Mchinji after walls of their houses collapsed due to stormy rains while three others died in Nkhotakota following lightning strikes.

Dodma spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula said 10 injuries have been recorded with three of them in Mchinji, two in Nkhotakota and five in Neno. He said preliminary reports indicate that at least 450 households have been affected by the disasters.

He said councils in the affected districts of Salima, Mchinji, Dedza, Mangochi, Nkhotakota, Phalombe, Lilongwe, Kasungu, Chitipa, Chiradzulu and Neno are still conducting assessments to ascertain the extent of damage.

Khamula said: “The injured were mostly treated as outpatients, except a two-and-half-year old child who has been admitted to Neno District Hospital. She got injured when the walls of the house she was in collapsed due to strong winds.

“The department has already started dispatching food and non-food relief items which include maize, kitchen utensils, housing units and plastic sheets for temporary roofing to affected councils.”

He said most of the relief items were prepositioned in disaster-prone areas for timely and effective response.

“In terms of resources, the department does not work in isolation, we work with various humanitarian and donor partners, coupled with funding that we get from the government for emergency response and implementation of disaster risk management programmes in general, we will reach out to all the people affected by various disasters,” Khamula said.

On Friday, Dodma director of response and recovery Moses C h i m p h e p o v i s i t e d survivors in Lilongwe to appreciate the challenges they were facing and the extent of damage.

He warned those staying in disaster-prone areas to move to safer places, fearing that the damage may be huge at the peak of the season.

“Since the seasonal forecast is similar to that of last year, we anticipate some disasters to occur, but not as early as this. We still urge people to take precautionary measures as early as possible so that lives are saved,” said Chimphepo.

In Chitipa District, heavy rains caused havoc on Thursday afternoon and blew off roofs of a classroom at Ipenza Primary School, a clinic, churches and affected over 40 villages in Senior Chief Kameme.

The h e a v y r a i n s disrupted lessons for the standards One, Two and Three at the school.

The department has said that due to effects of climate change, the disasters the nation is experiencing are of high magnitude and catastrophic, as such, it is suicidal to cling to disaster-prone areas.

As part of preparedness for this rainy season’s disasters , Dodma is implementing a national multi-hazard contingency plan to guide all response interventions in any emergency that the country might come across.

With financial and technical support from the World Food Programme, Dodma established a humanitarian staging area (HSA) at Bangula in Nsanje District to enhance coordination in managing disasters in the Shire Valley.

The HSA has in stock relief items and search and rescue equipment such as boats for effective and timely response.

The department is also dredging rivers notorious for flooding in the Shire Valley and is also completing construction of drains meant to control flooding in Lilongwe.

Five months ago, Dodma provided K160 million for the purchase of land for over 4 000 households from four villages, who voluntarily wrote the Chikwawa District Council to move them to safer places following Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe. n

Additional reporting by NPL Correspondent JORDAN-SIMEON PHIRI and Dodma’s CHIMWEMWE NJOLOMA.