DODMA urges people to relocate

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA) has cautioned people in Rumphi to relocate to safer places from perennial disaster prone areas in order to refrain from the natural disasters that may strike in this coming rainy season.

The department’s Deputy Director responsible for Risk Reduction, Fedson Chikuse made the call Wednesday when the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services was presenting the weather forecast for Rumphi district for the 2021/2022 rainy season.

Chikuse said people should not rely on the relief items they get when they fall victims of such disasters saying they need to consider in the protection of life and property they have invested in for a long time.

Risk Reduction Director Fedson Chikuse

“From the weather forecast for Rumphi it seems we will have areas where there will be low rainfall and others above normal rainfall therefore we anticipate that there might be dry spells in other areas and floods in other areas.

“As a department we are ready to support those that will be affected by the disasters in this rainy season but I should urge people living in disaster prone areas to relocate to uplands and they should not be complaisant with the little they get when such disasters occur,” Chikuse said.

Chief Meteorologist, Amos Mtonya from the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said this year’s rainy season will have rains ranging from normal to above normal and the season will last between 100 to 120 days.

“We anticipate that this year’s rainy season will be shorter than the 2020/2021 rainy season because the previous rainy season ranged from 120 to 135 days but thing are different this season.

“I am urging the general public to follow daily weather updates so that they can plan well for the season,” Mtonya explained.

Mwazisi Extension Planning Area, Extension worker, Astey Msiska said the weather forecast for the district will help her to disseminate the right information to farmers so that they plan well for the coming growing season in order for them to harvest bumper yield.

“Since we have known that this year’s rainy season is short then it will be our duty to advise farmers to grow early mature varieties of crops and also drought resistant crops so that they should harvest higher yield,” Msiska said.

Rumphi is one of the districts in the country which experiences perennial disasters such as flooding, hailstorms among others.

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