By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, September 8, Mana: In the flat lands of Nyungwe in the lakeshore district of Karonga, 68-year-old Baija Manda lives in makeshift structure together with his wife, seven children and three grandchildren, about 10 metres from the notorious Wovwe River.

He recalls one bad night in February when a crashing sound woke him up from sleep.

“We were asleep as a family and we heard a crashing noise, then a sharp cry from one of the children.

“When I woke up, I couldn’t locate the door, it was blocked by debris. The house had fallen down,” he says.

The injured child was rushed to the hospital and the rest of the family sought refuge at a nearby school which would later become their ‘home’ for three months.

“This [Wovwe] river used to pass some 200 metres away from here until this year in February when it got mad, creating itself new pathways felling houses along the way,” Manda says.

Heavy rains in both Chitipa and Karonga created a fierce runoff that flooded Tilora, Chimbilili and Hara streams forcing them to converge, creating a large pool that drained into Wovwe River, which then broke its banks causing pandemonium down in the lakeshore communities.

The raging waters swept away crop fields, livestock and household items including blankets, utensils and food leaving the communities destitute.

They also changed the river course, bringing it to within five metres from where used to be Manda’s house and about 10 metres from where he has now erected a makeshift structure that houses the family.

It is September and elsewhere, most rivers have dried up, but Wovwe is still running with rage, still posing a threat to the family.

“This structure is unsafe as it exposes us to various biting crawling creatures. At the same time, there is no privacy as it has no proper room demarcations,” Manda says.

He is one of the 724 victims in the district who received cash transfers from the Red Cross Society of Malawi to help them rebuild their lives after a three month stay at a camp.

However, the rebuilding process has been slow as the money they received is long exhausted.

“As much as we are thankful for the support we received form Red Cross during this disaster, we still have many challenges.

“For instance, we have moulded bricks, bought iron sheets but there is no money to employ bricklayers to help with construction. We do not have money for cement, let alone planks for roofing,” Manda says.

Another victim, Alantos Mzumala concurs with Manda saying there are more gaps begging for assistance in the course of rebuilding the victim’s lives.

“Some of us have bought land in upland but we don’t have money to start constructing houses.

“Others have bricks ready but lack other resources. It’s a mix bag, but the common challenge is that we cannot rebuild if we are not supported further,” Mzumala says.

He fears the approaching rain season would unleash hell and pile more pressure on the families which are already bushed so far.

“The floods left us with nothing. We lost food, we lost crops in the field. We lost everything in the houses. The only thing we were left with is life.

“Despite the support we received from Red Cross and other organisations including government, the rebuilding process has been slow because there are still many things that are lacking,” he says.

Disaster Risk Management Officer for Karonga District Council, Humphrey Magalasi says Karonga as one of the most disaster prone districts in the northern region perennially experiences flooding, strong winds, drought and outbreaks like cholera.

He says in the 2023/2024 rainfall season, the district received a lot of rains causing flooding from January up to April, affecting 3 500 households.

“But we received overwhelming support from government and stakeholders both within and outside the district including the Red Cross Society.

“With Red Cross we planned and worked together throughout the process from assessment to the actual response whereby the most affected household were given K250 000 for shelter and K150 000 for livelihood support. They had to have a starting point,” Magalasi says.

As part of the Disaster Risk Management Committee and co-lead in shelter and camp management, Red Cross has been a key actor, mobilising both food and non-food support for the victims.

Louis Tobias Solomon is the Emergency Operations Coordinator for the Malawi Red Cross Society and says it is pleasing that the flood victims have put the money they received to good use.

“Malawi Red Cross in its mandate as an auxiliary to the public authority, worked hand in hand with government to do preliminary assessments of the flooding that occurred this year and the findings revealed that Karonga, Nkhotakota, Kasungu and Lilongwe districts were the districts that were heavily affected.

“We lobbied support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) for funding and we got K971 million through the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF),” Solomon explains.

He says the humanitarian society only targeted those that had their houses totally destroyed so that they rebuild their homes.

The DREF aimed at providing indirect support to 12,375 people and direct support to 3,000 people in Nkhotakota, Karonga, Kasungu and Lilongwe districts for a consecutive period of three months.

Specifically, the intervention planned to provide immediate livelihood support through cash transfers and strengthening community resilience through promotion of livelihood and risk reduction activities to protect productive assets of the targeted households in the four districts.

About 5,000 people have been reached directly while over 200 000 people have been reached indirectly through awareness campaigns on cholera, disaster preparedness and prevention of gender based violence.

At least 600 households received K400 000 each for shelter rehabilitation and basic needs while 400 families received K150 000 for basic needs. 

The humanitarian society also supported the district health offices to deliver essential health items like chlorine and other supplies and facilitated health outreach clinics in hard to reach areas

“We came up with a comprehensive package so that the households are also given some support through sanitary items like soap, sleeping mats and blankets to reduce their suffering apart from the cash transfers,” Solomon says.

He says most of the beneficiaries were those in the lakeshore districts of Karonga and Nkhotakota because there was more destruction than in Kasungu and Lilongwe.

“I’m happy to see that most the communities we targeted have used their money for intended purposes, they are rebuilding their houses,” he says.

On his part, Head of Disaster Management at Malawi Red Cross Society, Patrick Phiri, expresses gratitude to the IFRC and other funders for their quick response towards the crisis that disrupted the social economic lives for thousands.

“We are also grateful to the Malawi Government, Danish, Swiss and Icelandic Red Cross, corporate organisations and various individuals for their support which made us provide good response.

“We work closely with the Department of Disaster Management Affairs and other humanitarian players on the ground because we value coordination and we look forward to further collaboration and assistance from them,” he says.  

Nevertheless, Village Head Kayaghala 2 of Nyungwe whose community was heavily hit says more needs to be done at least before the next rain season comes so that the victim’s lives are fully brought to normalcy.