Flood survivors plead for supplementary support from government
A call has gone out to government to make a steady fast process in putting aside enough money that will help to support flood survivors in Nkhotakota district.
Chairpeson at Lunga camp Luka Mtata said people right now in camps mostly are lacking good shelter to sleep as well as enough food.
Mtata made these sentiments during an interaction with minister of health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda on Monday 11th March, 2024 when she took time to visit flood survivors at Lunga and Ngala camp in Dwangwa, Nkhotakota district.
In her response the minister said as government they are working tirelessly to ensure that these people are being supported with all necessities including good shelter as well as enough food and they are aware that they are lacking good healthcare services and as government they have put in place initiatives to support them with different medical treatments in order to prevent them from contacting other diseases.
“We are aware that others are on different medical treatments and we have deployed our health clinicians as well as nurses to support these people like providing children with all vaccinations, providing anti-nental services for pregnant women, providing ART clinics, and we are also providing services for NCD’s, for Malaria, this is done to promote good health as you know without good health we can also put pressure to other healthcare problems including cases of cholera,” Chiponda said.
She also made mention of pink eye outbreak with Nkhotakota recording 15 cases and she said the ministry is working tirelessly to make sure that people who are in these camps are getting the right information in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
Parliamentarian for Nkhotakota North Constituency Henry Chimunthu-Banda said he is grateful for the support from government and other partners interms of food but he made an appeal for more support interms of other utilities like mosquito nets, toilets, as well as availability of good enough water.
Ngala camp is the biggest camp with the capacity of over 2000 flood survivors whilst Lunga camp has the population of 600 people.
According to the information which has been corrected so far, 16,450 people were affected by floods in Nkhotakota district while 10,529 people are still living in 11 designated camps.
