The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) has reached out to 94 per cent of households affected by various weather-related disasters between July 2020 and July 2021.
DoDMA’s Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Ephod Kachigwada, said out of 37,132 affected households, the department, in collaboration with various humanitarian partners, reached out to 35,077 households with relief assistance.
“The figure represents 94 per cent of all the affected households. The package included food and non-food items such as maize/rice, beans, plastic sheets for temporary roofing, kitchen utensils,” said Kachigwada.
From July 2020, to July 2021, the country experienced several weather-related disasters mostly lightning, stormy rains, strong winds, heavy rains, flash floods and hailstorms leading to loss of lives, injuries and damage to houses and household property.
“Some of the heavily affected councils included Mangochi, Lilongwe, Ntchisi, Zomba, Phalombe, Balaka, Kasungu, Mchinji, Mulanje, Nkhotakota, Mzimba, Karonga and Machinga.
“Sadly, the department has registered 67 deaths, (of which 49 were due to lightning). The department has also recorded a total of 276 injuries,” said Kachigwada.
He said the department intensified awareness to save lives of people at risk of weather-related disasters such as lightning and floods. About 4,000 slots of early warning jingles were aired (between December, 2020 and March, 2021) on two national and 23 community radio stations, with financial support from UNICEF and the World Bank.
In the pictures, members of the Civil Protection Committee in T/A Malengachanzi, Nkhotakota; offload relief items for distribution to affected households.
