Families voluntarily relocate to safer places in flood hit Chikhwawa, get relief food

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs has given relief food to families which voluntarily relocated to safer places in Chikhwawa.

This follows the order by Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs Charles Kalemba.

Some families in Chikhwawa relocated to safer places after devastating effects of tropical storm Ana and cyclone Gombe.

Kalemba made the order during a visit  to the New Kanseche Village in T/A Maseya Lundu, to appreciate how communities are settling down in the new setting and challenges they are facing.

Over 500 families from the Old Kanseche Village in TA Lundu, voluntarily relocated to the new village.

They are part of thousands of households who voluntarily wrote the council on the need to move to safer places.

“It’s not easy to settle down in a new environment, I appreciate the challenges you have pointed out, ranging from food and access to clean and potable water.

“In the meantime, I am ordering the District Council to work with officers within the Department of Disaster Management Affairs [DoDMA] and make sure that food is provided in this village as well as Matsukambiya; as a matter of urgency.

“We are geared to making Kanseche and others; model villages through which people understand and appreciate the need for moving to safer places.

“Let us keep on engaging each other as we forge ahead. In collaboration with the Malawi Red Cross Society and other partners; we will ensure that potable water is provided in this village and all other villages that relocated following their expression of interest to move and subsequent provision of land by the department,” said Kalemba.

He then advised the communities to engage in irrigation and winter cropping, saying government will support any initiatives aimed at building disaster resilience and breaking the food insecurity cycle.

“Relocation is not the end of the road, you still have to work in the fields you left and ensure that you are self-reliant,” said Kalemba.

DoDMA has since provided relief maize to about 1,000 households from Kanseche and Matsukambiya villages.

During the visit, Secretary for the New Kanseche Village Civil Protection Committee Pilirani Mailosi expressed concern over food insecurity and lack of potable water.

“A handful of households benefitted from the lean season response when in actual sense, we were all in need of assistance as we all struggled to get back to our fit following effects of Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclone Gombe.

“We are also looking forward to getting farm inputs so that we become self-reliant,” said Mailosi.