By Chisomo Kambandanga

Nkhata Bay, September 21, Mana: Disaster Risk Management Officer for Nkhata Bay District Council, Rachel Kamanga Friday has cited financial hiccups and inadequate capacity building for personnel as some of the factors that affect the council in responding to disasters effectively.

Kamanga was speaking when Umunthu Plus presented to the District Executive Committee, Capacity Building Project on Disaster and Logistics Management in the district.

The project among others aims at improving the capacity of the council to respond to all forms of emergencies.

"This is a timely project considering we are going towards the rainy season when disasters are imminent.

At times we fail to effectively respond to such disasters due to lack of capacity by personnel at all levels apart from financial constraints and this project is a good intervention," Kamanga said.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Umunthu Plus, Rumbani Mgula said that the project strived to fill gaps the council experiences when disasters hit the district.

"We observed that some councils just keep relief items in trucks due to limited storage facilities and this trend can lead to theft of the items, hence the project will fill that gap," Mgula said.

The six-month project which is funded by the World Food Program is expected to be implemented in Nkhata Bay, Karonga and Nkhotakota with each district getting about K23 million kwacha.