By Patience Longwe

Lilongwe, March 7, Mana: Director of Preparedness and Response for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA), Moses Chimphepo, has asked the Parliamentary Cluster Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources to lobby government for an extra K1 billion to their budget in order for them to operate effectively and efficiently.

Chimphepo made the remarks in Lilongwe on Wednesday after meeting the committee.

He said DoDMA needs resources to support Malawi efficiently saying responding to disasters depends on the magnitude of the disaster and as such extra funding is needed.

He also said the prolonged dry spells that some districts have faced will require resources to help people in those areas.

"Currently, we don’t know how many people will be food insecure and once those people are determined, we will come up with a budget for our current course.

“For those that we know we need an additional K1 billion on top of the K1 billion which has been allocated to us. At least K2 billion will be enough for us to operate properly as a department,” he said.

Co-chairperson for the Parliamentary Cluster Committee on Natural Resources, Werani Chilenga, said as Members of Parliament (MPs) their mandate is to make sure that people are helped through DoDMA.

He said MPs will help DoDMA to get extra funding.

"We will lobby the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture so that they should have enough funding to mitigate most of these factors,” Chilenga said.