Shire Valley chiefs blocking resettlement of flood victims

Efforts to resettle thousands of people who were caught in the middle of surging floods in January last year in the Shire Valley are being hampered by lack of cooperation from traditional leaders who, among other things, are denying the allocation of safer land to flood victims.

District commissioner (DC) for Chikwawa Bester Mandele told Weekend Nation on Tuesday that some of the reasons for the low resettlement rate were the denial by some chiefs to give up land for the flood victims to restart their lives.

“We made an appeal to chiefs to allocate safer land to people who have been affected by the floods. Of the many traditional leaders, only T/A Ngabu responded by giving us the land at Jombo. Unfortunately, due to this development, a lot of people have gone back to the flood-prone areas, putting themselves at great risk, especially this El Nino year,” he said.

But T/A Ngabu dismissed assertions that the chiefs were refusing to offer land to resettle the flood victims claiming the issue was complicated by chieftaincy politics.

‘‘It is not that chiefs are refusing to provide land as such. We have discussed this issue and agreed that we can no longer expect to have people assisted every year when we can move them upland.

‘‘But the problem is that the people in flood-prone areas have their own village heads who are clinging to their subjects. We advised them to move upland where they could not be recognised as separate villages, which they are refusing. That is the biggest problem that we have,” he said.

Ngabu said he has warned chiefs under his authority to heed to the demands by the district’s chiefs’ council to move to safer areas.

Over 42 000 people were displaced in Chikwawa alone, but out of that only 203 families have finally resettled permanently at Jombo Village south of Nchalo Trading Centre, putting at least thousands more at risk of facing the same calamity as last year.

This week, villagers at Jombo were busy putting up permanent structures using unbaked bricks and timber in the absence of camp facilities that they used to enjoy when the floods struck last year.

Minister of Local Government Kondwani Nankhumwa when contacted on the issue denied to have been officially informed of the situation.

“In all fairness, we always make sure that we address issues of this kind whenever they are formally reported. But in this particular case, my ministry is yet to get these reports. Therefore, we will wait for the council to furnish us with the details. But I can assure you that we will always work with other relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Lands to ensure that Malawians are living in safer places,” he said.

In 2014, issues of the same kind surfaced after floods in the Shire Valley districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje when some chiefs were accused of clinging to their subjects, stopping them from relocating to higher areas.

Responding to the challenges of building materials that the people at Jombo are facing, Mandele called upon partners to help the people become productive again by supporting the resettlement programme.

Mandele commended Henwood Foundation, an arm for Apostolic Faith Church who donated building materials and a borehole worth K15 million to people at Jombo Village, saying the assistance will help the villagers move on with their lives.

“As government, we have always been encouraging people in the flood-prone areas to move upland. But these efforts are hampered by lack of enough resources, especially social services and building materials. We are glad that some partners are still supporting our programmes to relocate these people to safer areas,” he said.

Apart from the borehole, Henwood Foundation with support from Nak Karitativ of Germany donated assorted building materials and equipment such as tarpaulins, hoes, brick moulds and clothing with a pledge to support the people at the village in their water and sanitation programme.

Henwood Foundation’s country projects coordinator, Ann Soko, said her organisation was putting in everything to ensure a smooth transition of the resettlement process.

“For us seeing these people making a fresh start to their lives after the disaster that they faced is really refreshing. Our role has been to assist the efforts of government to make these people productive again. We have given these items following a needs assessment that we conducted together with council officials,” she said.