Malawi needs K250bn to replace flood-wrecked infrastructure

The Department of Disaster and Management (DoDMA) says it requires a staggering K250 billion to replace or recondition infrastructure that was ruined in the wake of flood disasters that hit the country, especially in the southern region earlier this year.

In March, heavy rains swept through Malawi, causing widespread flooding; and, several days later a cyclone with winds over 280 kilometres an hour touched down in the country, destroying homes, roads, infrastructure and crops.

About 64 000 people were displaced in Chikwawa alone, and most are still living in camps waiting for their homes to be safe again.

But DoDMA principal secretary, Wilson Moleni, said the department is cash-strapped to do anything about the destroyed infrastructure.

Moleni said his department will have to bank on donors and both local and international stakeholders for assistance.

“We have no resources for the exercise, and we will have to rely on donors,” said Moleni.

He said that what his department has been doing in the last few months was in accordance to a planned flood response plan and nothing more.

“We did a needs assessment after the floods hit the affected areas and came up with a flood response plan. In the response plan, we have been offering a return home project that included food items and tents. But as for funding for resettlement, we don’t have,” he said.

However, Moleni hinted that his department would need to work out a solution to the problem.

He said: “We will need to sit down and come up with a post-disaster plan in which we will probably see what can be done about the infrastructure.”

Last week, DoDMA also announced it had a deficit of K14 billion in its disaster response budget.

When rains came, most of infrastructure including roads were washed away raising public uproar on shoddy work on part of contractors.

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