Shire Valley situation tragic—Mcheka-Chilenje

Food shortage, congestion, health risks threaten to pile more misery on displaced people in 22 camps in Nsanje and Chikwawa districts, something that may led to an increase in the death toll due to the ravaging floods.
A visit by Nation on Sunday on Friday to the area in the company of UNFPA officials who were distributing reproductive health and dignity kits to pregnant and adolescent girls showed that fears of increased sexual activity put girls and women at high risk in crowding conditions.
Several women interviewed said the fear of rape and other forms of sexual abuse were rising.
Some attested to sharing sanitary pads as all their property were washed away by the floods.
According to UNFPA assistant representative Dorothy Nyasulu, four women have delivered in camp since the floods.
“The sharing of sanitary pads increases risk of infection,” said Nyasulu.
Some authorities, including First  Deputy Speaker of Parliament Esther Mcheka Chilenje, straight from touring affected areas on a Malawi Defence Force (MDF) helicopter, attested this, saying this is the worst flood in their time in the area.
“Opening the helicopter’s [door] one could feel the stench of dead bodies. I could see bodies floating in the river. Roads are impassable in some areas and some schools have been buried by sand from the floods,” said the Nsanje North parliamentarian.
Talley Hosha, head teacher for Chikonde Primary School, who spent two days in a tree and whose wife and daughter were also carried away by the floods, said food shortage remains a problem.
“We are getting one meal in a day, which is not enough,” he said.
Both Nsanje and Chikwawa district health officers (DHOs) agreed that chances of the displaced people catching communicable diseases are high.
“Sanitation is poor. This means communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera would be on the increase,” said Nsanje DHO Alexander Chijuwa whose comments were corroborated by Chikwawa DHO Dr Amber Majidu.
Some HIV positive women said they feared for their lives as their anti-retroviral drugs were washed away by the floods.
“I only have tablets to last two days. Further, we are struggling to get decent meals as we are being given one meal in a day,” cried one woman with a six-month baby strapped on her back.
According to Nsanje district commissioner Harry Phiri, they are currently distributing 1 000 20kg bags of maize per family. n