Malawi sets up committee on disaster victims
Department of Disaster Management says it has set up a high level committee to look and disaster victims and their needs just days after President Peter Mutharika declared Malawi a disaster nation.
Spokesperson for the Department of Disaster Management (Dodma) Jeremiah Mphande said the committee comprises of principal secretaries from different government ministries and departments.
“This National Disaster and Response Committee will give policy direction on how best to carry out the humanitarian work following the declaration of the state of national disaster the President,” said Mphande.
Mutharika declared a state of emergency in the country on Wednesday.
“I declare Malawi [in] a state of national disaster following prolonged dry spells during the 2015/16 agriculture season,” Mutharika said.
Mphande said the first meeting of the committee is on Monday.
He said another committee comprosing of NGOs and government officials among others will be set up soon.
Over three million Malawians will be in need of relief food this year following El Nino powered prolonged rains in the north and El Nino powered drought in the south which have forced food harvest to slump from three million metric tonnes to 2.4 million metric tonnes.
UN agency, the World Food Agency says the disaster in Malawi in other countries of Mozambique and Zimbabwe will go beyond 2016.
Critics say the government should have asked the Chinese government for large scale irrigation programmes as El Nino related unpredictable weather was focussed way back.
Egypt and Israel don’t receive any rains yet they produce enough food and export some. Malawi has a whole lake running from north to south yet you people complain about El Niño. I wish someone should just drop a nuclear bomb on countries like these and delete them from the face of the earth. Malawi is a waste of space!
Streamlined cabinet but lots of committees, advisors, commissions etc, etc, what sense does it make
Another useless committee., I thought Saulos Chilima is responsible for disaster management???? So why are you setting up a other committee??? Waste of resources!!!!