Floods leave thousands destitute
BLANTYRE: Tens of t housands of Malawians living in homes damaged by the nation’s worst floods have been left to fend for themselves as aid workers struggle to shelter and feed those who have fled to displacement camps.
About 638,000 people in 15 districts have been affected by the deluge, with 230,000 forced to evacuate their homes, data collated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs show. While relief efforts have focused on the worst-affected southern districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, scant assistance has reached flood victims in Blantyre, the commercial capital, and other areas.
“We are living a destitute life,” Manale Yona, 36, whose thatched house in Chiwasa village near Blantyre was left with cracked walls and a damaged roof. “We have lost houses and food, yet nothing is being said about our plight. We are just as badly affected as those in camps, if not worse. We are living like refugees in our own country.”
Hanging on Ms Yona’s porch were two tattered blankets drenched by the downpour that permeated what is left of her roof. In a corner stood a large plastic bag, containing her clothes and those of her six children.
Malawi, a southern African nation, with a population of 17 million, relies on foreign aid to fund as much as 40% of its budget. The floods may have disrupted tobacco, the nation’s main export, as farmers have been unable to tend their crops, the Tobacco Association of Malawi said last month.
President Peter Mutharika has said economic growth will fall short of the government’s target of 5.8% for this year because of the flood devastation. Efforts to scale up relief efforts have been constrained by a lack of money, with donors contributing US$21.1 million (688 million baht) of the $81 million the state has requested to fund its preliminary flood response.
More than 200 houses were damaged in Chiwasa village alone, according to Alexander Nguwo, who helps coordinate the Family Strengthening Programme for SOS Children’s Home, a charity that cares for more than 3,000 children in Blantyre and Ngabu, 50km to the south.
“Child-headed families are the most affected,” Mr Nguwo said. “We normally offer these children education and entrepreneurial skills. Some of these children have stopped going to school because their homes are damaged. We are now overwhelmed by this disaster.”