Malawi VP Chilima says rescue operations have been a success

Malawi Vice President Saulos Chilima has said despite challenges that had been there like bad weather, Government has managed to successfully carry out rescue operations in all areas that have been hit by floods triggered by heavy and unprecedented down pour in the country.

According to Chilima, there are currently no areas that have people who are totally stranded but however stressed that all response strategies in place are still ongoing.

The Vice President said this on Wednesday when he briefed journalists on the recent updates and steps taken in addressing the floods-crisis; in Lilongwe.

He said the national responses have been categorized in three phases with the first being rescue operations, provision of relief items and lastly being the recovery process.

Chilima, despite saying government is still working on the national disaster response plan, he stressed the importance of people in the flood prone areas to move to the upper lands.

“While plans are still there, let me join His Excellency President Peter Mutharika in appealing to people in Phalombe and all the flood prone areas to move to the upper lands. I hope people will take this appeal seriously so that we can avert the disaster,” said Chilima.

“We will still be looking on to see how best we can avoid similar disasters in the next rainy season and in all the seasons to come.

Chilima said the UN is also doing further assessments to establish the extent of the disaster which will help in establishing exactly how much and what kind of resources will be needed aftermath of the disaster.

The Vice President also urged all those willing to help through cash or kind, but preferably in relief items to channel their resources to the department of disaster management or on the local level to the responsible district officers in order to be a step ahead of possible defrauders who might want to take advantage of the crisis.

Recent figures indicate 121, 000 households have been displaced, 153 people missing, 40, 000 hectors of crop land destroyed and 48, 000 metric tons of food lost.

He however said all disaster preparedness mechanisms will still be in place.

“There have been conflicting reports with some indicating that we could be hit with another cyclone with other reports indicating that we may not.

“This is why all districts inter agency teams and all other response teams are still at work. However, touchwood is it does not hit Malawi,” said Chilima.

He subsequently thanked local organizations like Admarc, KIA Air Cargo, Press Trust, Illovo sugar, Africana club and FDH amongst others who have come forward and rendered a helping hand to government in addressing the disaster.

Also, Chilima thanked the international support from Zambia, India, the Japanese government and also Jica for their support.

As of now, he said there are pledges from the World Bank of 6, 000 dollars, 2 million dollars from USAID, 6, 000 dollars from the EU, 2.5 million dollars from Japan, and further pledges from Cadecom, Unicef, DFID and Medicine sen frontiers.

The African Development Bank (ADB), Irish Aid and the Germany government will help in the recovery process.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :