Every now and then, officials responsible for disaster management have to
make short, anguished trips to districts in the Shire Valley, a place well
charted, as far as human disasters are concerned.
Chikwawa and Nsanje, the so-called Shire Valley districts, are so visible in
disaster time— which is always in the rainy season— that, compared to other
parts of Malawi, they wear their guts on the outside— as depicted through their
resistance, which they portray with surplus machismo, to the idea of relocation
upland.
The Shire River, Malawi’s longest and biggest river, flows in the background—
perhaps as a symbol of the guts the people wear outside; for the river, which
flows mightily in broad daylight, and in thick darkness, is very much a part of
the Shire Valley’s story of disaster— laid out like the map of disaster waiting
to happen.
For the most part— at least when disaster strikes— it [the river] is blamed
for causing flooding, which often happens when its banks burst.
However, the floods cannot be traced to a single trail, like that [trail] of
too much rains; for experts from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs
(Dodma) argue that people stay too close to the river.
So, instead of being a single trail of disaster, the Shire Valley is
‘visited’ by a series of disasters— persistent, almost predictable— that has
defined the pathways of Shire Valley people to trouble; trouble being the
disasters that have become a tear-evoking part of their story.
The Shire Valley story, for what it is, is a story of agricultural
production— its bedrock being the fertile, alluvial soils of the Shire River
which nourish crops for sound nutrition and replenishment; and livestock,
especially cattle, on which residents of Blantyre and other Southern Region
districts depend to meet their meat needs— wildlife at Majete Game Reserve;
hydro-electric power generation at Tedzani; man-hunting crocodiles; and, of
course, floods.
At first, it was the issue of connotation of a name [that question again,
what is in a name?] that was the trouble, for the area used to be referred to
as the Lower Shire, and politicians such as former Cabinet ministers Harry
Thomson, Gwanda Chakuamba and Sidik Mia and parliamentary Committee on
Agriculture Chairperson Joseph Chidanti-Malunga did not like that idea.
They said, as Chidanti-Malunga puts it, that calling Nsanje and Chikwawa
Lower Shire districts depicted the people as “backward’, ignorant almost.
They won the battle, the politicians; for the Shire Valley is getting more
prominent than the Lower Shire.
Sadly, it is the story of persistent floods that continues to put Shire
Valley people in the centre of the storm, for all the bad reasons, throwing positive
stories such as those of natural resources preservation, hydro-electric power
generation, food production, livestock production, among others, in the dustbin
of petty things.
In the end, the Shire Valley has turned into, not a place but, an abstract
mass whose story is tangled in flood-induced death, injuries, displacements and
what have you. Not a desirable position for people desiring to portray a
positive image to the world.
Not surprisingly, the people of the Shire Valley have come in for scathing
criticism, people criticising them for staying put in a zone that reeks of
nothing but trouble: injuries, displacement, death— a people unable to make
decisions. Typical Lower Shire people!
But, of course, former veteran politician the late Chakuamba tried to back
the people up, saying they, simply, could not abandon it as one abandons a
lice-infested bed.
“The Shire River provides fertile land for the cultivation of crops and
rearing of livestock, supporting the livelihoods of thousands of people,” he
said on November 7 2007.
The Shire River, as Lake Malawi’s only outlet, also flows all year round,
making green the grass that lines its path from Lake Malawi to Zambezi River to
the Indian Ocean.
The grass is the food that nourishes the bodies of animals such as cattle,
which are then slaughtered and consumed in places far and wide.
So, Shire Valley traditional leaders such as Nyachikadza have been refusing
to relocate upland. For him, this is because his subjects’ ancestors are buried
in the fertile soils that feed the green grass that is food to the cattle that
nourishes the health of Malawians that love the Shire River.
In 2001, the government tried the impossible: suggesting that Shire Valley residents
who stay in flood-prone areas relocate. In broad daylight, they refused.
This was despite that the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological
Services had issued a ‘fresh’ warning’ that, for the umpteenth time, floods would
define life for Shire Valley people during the rainy season that would span from
November 2001 to March 2002.
The then director of the department,
Donald Kamdonyo, said Malawi would receive average to above average rainfall,
making floods inevitable, especially in the Lower Shire Valley districts of
Chikwawa and Nsanje.
This came after, according to
statistics which the Department of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and
Rehabilitation— now Department of Disaster Management Affairs— compiled, at
least 157,000 households in Chikwawa and 60,000 households in Nsanje were left
destitute after floods messed their lives up the previous year.
That year, floods also affected 12
other districts countrywide, leaving five people dead after houses collapsed on
them. Countless others suffered broken bones.
Not to be outdone, crocodiles, which
always lurk in the waters, attacked and skilled dozens others in the valley.
That is the story of the Shire
Valley when the country’s biggest and longest river, the Shire River, overflows;
it washes not only livestock, people, houses and crops but also crocodiles that
head for riverside villages.
The floods expose people and
livestock that escape collapsing houses and raging waters to death at the hands
of crocodiles, a painful ordeal considering that the mouth of a hungry
crocodile has long teeth.
But, still, Nyachikadza and Chief
Joseph Kwenje of Sekeni 1 Village in Chikwawa, where most houses were destroyed
in 2001, refused to move an inch on the issue of relocation.
“This village has fertile land, on
which we grow maize, sorghum, bananas, pumpkins, Irish and sweet potatoes,
among others.
“For example, we harvest maize twice
a year because of the rich alluvial soils. Our maize flourishes without chemical
fertilisers. The Shire River is God-given and our crops are our life-blood,” he
said.
In the name of lifeblood, they lose
their blood to the raging floods, until, maybe, the last individual standing
drops his last drop of blood— if not to a collapsing house or drowning, at
least a crocodile.
It is a man or woman dying for the
land he or she loves; just that death, instant and— in the case of a crocodile
attack— painful comes in time of peace.
To 34-year-old father of four
Michael Lufeyo, a resident of Thabwa in Chikwawa, there is no way they can relocate.
He says, in 2002, the then Environmental
Affairs minister Thomson and the then district commissioner Kiswell Dakamau
both tried to reason with him and other villagers to move upland. They failed.
“We nearly stoned them. You see,
people often talk about the need to move out of here, our fertile land, but the
places they identify for us are worse off than this place. The areas they
suggest, including Dyelatu and other places, are dry and less fertile than
where we are. We will never relocate,” he said on March 11 this year, even as
the Blantyre-Chikwawa Road was cut off at Domasi in the district, leaving
transporters and business persons grounded for days on end.
But, as former commissioner for
Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation Lucius Chikuni once said, the
only solution is to relocate.
"It will be difficult to
convince donors, every year, to release funds for relief aid when the permanent
solution would have been to move the people upland," he said back in 2001.
That is why, about 17 years later,
Lufeyo is still staying on a floods-battered two-hectare piece of land close to
Domasi.
Predictable pattern
The Global Framework for Climate Services Adaptation Programme in Africa has
been predicting, since 2013, that rainfall patterns in Malawi and other Southern
African Development Community member states would be tottering between normal and
catastrophic.
That is why, between then and now, it is either La Nina or El Nino,
affecting, positively or negatively, the country’s agricultural seasons.
No wonder, “previous spells of El Nino greatly affected field production,” as
Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services Director, Jolam
Nkhokwe, observes.
The problem is climate change-related and solution, according to Natural
Resources Minister Aggrey Masi, lies in controlling green gases emissions.
He says climate, per se, is not the problem; the problem is drastic changes
in climate.
Climate, he observes, is a variable resource that drives economies through hydro,
thermal and solar power but even these can be affected by changes in climate.
Another solution, of course, is relocation, an idea
Director
for Humanitarian Response at Dodma, Paul Kalilombe, supports as a long-term solution to
perennial floods.
Fortunately,
while those in the Shire Valley continue to snub the idea of relocation, others
in equally flood-prone areas are ready to do so.
Other than
Nsanje and Chikwawa districts, one of the districts have have fallen prey to
persistent floods is Mangochi, where people in Chikundo, Nansenga, Chipala
and Mtiyala villages, Traditional Authority Mponda, as well as some parts of
T/As Chimwala, Namavi, Chowe, Chilipa and Makanjira have become
more-than-one-time victims of floods.
Since the onset of the seasonal rains in November 2018, 15,000 households
have been negatively affected in these areas, according to Dodma records.
It is the fifth time— meaning, fifth consecutive year— the households have
borne the brunt of natural disasters, a development Mponda blames on climate
change.
“We are living in strange days. In the past, disasters were not commonplace,
perhaps because we had lots of trees.
“Today, most of the trees have been felled and we are experiencing
challenges such as soil erosion, floods, drought, prolonged dry spells, among
others. We do not know where to run to,” the chief says.
Of course, his subjects have an idea about where to run to: “Upland, of
course.”
It is the voice of Marko Malikebu of Chikundi Village.
There is a problem, though: “I and my family cannot relocate upland because
some of the areas identified do not have social amenities such as schools,
sanitation and health facilities.
“Besides, we do not have money we can use for building resilient houses.
Some of us do not have money for buying pieces of land in safe locations. We
need support from the government,” says Malikebu, who has been constructing a
new house each year for the past five years.
Most of the affected houses are built with unbaked bricks.
The challenge, according to Kalilombe, is that Dodma is incapacitated, when
it comes to the issue of financing the relocation of, otherwise, stranded
people.
This is because his department does not have the mandate to finance
relocation of people affected by floods because it specialises in supporting
disaster-struck people.
The best it can do is to engage other government departments on the issue.
“We, as a department, would have loved it if the people moved out of these
areas because it is a concern for us to be assisting the same people each rainy
season.
“However, the issue of relocation is a multi-sectorial issue which needs
proper policies by relevant government agencies,” he said.
He says, on several occasions, Dodma has been advising affected people to
move upland but most of them claim that they do not have a place to move to,
let alone a pillow to put their heads on; meaning that, somehow, other
government departments have to come in and support those who have turned into
‘customers’ of disasters.
Never ending cycle of trouble
Surprisingly, those who suffer the negative effects of floods and other
natural disasters, and those who do not, are warned each and every year.
But, it seems, such news is treated as a myth, until the reality of disaster
strikes, turning structures from houses, groceries to rubble— another macabre
souvenir of the time bomb that ticks every time the rains are on us.
On October 1 2018, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological
Services announced that there was a likelihood of moderate El Nino weather
conditions during the 2018/19 rainfall season which would cause floods in some parts
of the country.
Nkhokwe indicated that the El Nino phenomenon was expected
between September and November.
“Global models are currently projecting the development of
moderate El Nino conditions between September and November 2018, which are
likely to persist throughout the 2018/19 rainfall season,” he said.
An El Nino phenomenon is an unusual warning of waters over
the Eastern Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean and is known to influence
rainfall patterns across the world including Southern Africa and Malawi.
Nkhokwe said, between October 2018 and March 2019, most of
the Northern Region areas, spilling over into Central Region areas of the
country, would receive normal to above normal rainfall while most areas of the Southern
Region would receive normal to below rainfall amounts.
“This implies that the impacts associated with reduced or
increased rainfall amounts such as prolonged dry spells and floods,
respectively, are likely to occur during the season,” he said.
He said this is based on observations and analyses in Malawi,
with input from a climate experts meeting that took place in Gaborone, Botswana,
recently.
Moderate El Nino phenomenon was also experienced in 2002/03
and in 2009/10 in Malawi.
Malawi's climate is influenced by three major factors, which
are El Nino Southern Oscillation, The Indian Ocean Dipole and Subtropical
Indian Ocean Dipole.
In addition, rainfall patterns are driven mainly by
Intertropical Convergence Zone, Congo air mass and tropical cyclones, according
to the department.
In the 2017/18 rainfall season, some areas, mostly in the Southern
Region of Malawi, were heavily affected by dry spells which affected maize
production output.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water
Development, at least 3.3 million people were food insecure during the 2018/19
lean period, statistics reflected in a Malawi Vulnerability Assessment
Committee report.
While adverse weather conditions were,
truly, foreseen, nobody foresaw events of last week, when rains fell in droves,
leaving devastation and bad memories in their wake.
On March 5 2019, the Department of Climate Change and Metrological Services
warned that the Southern Region would experience severe weather conditions that
would weaken only on Friday, March 8.
The
department further warned that the anticipated heavy rains could cause floods,
including flash floods, in prone areas
while strong winds could destroy property and endanger life.
“To
secure property and lives, the public should, therefore, take precautionary
measures such as moving to higher grounds when water levels start rising, avoid
crossing flooding rivers and not seeking shelter under trees and weak
shelters,” the statement read in part.
Nkhokwe
said the department was monitoring weather developments which could directly or
indirectly affect weather over the country to ensure seamless use of weather
information on all timescales by the public.
He
attributed the conditions to a low pressure area initially traced in the Mozambique
Channel.
However,
the department seemed to doubt its own wisdom for, on Thursday, it changed
tune, saying conditions would normalise on Sunday— and not on Thursday or
Friday as earlier communicated.
As
it were, by Saturday, the rains were over in Blantyre and other highly affected
areas.
“When
we said that the rains would weaken on Thursday, we didn’t know that the air
mass which was in Mozambique and triggering the rains here in Malawi would
actually come here in Malawi.
“As
we speak, that air mass has come over and we expect the rains to continue up to
Saturday when the air mass will be heading back to Mozambique,” he said on
Thursday.
Nkhokwe
reiterated that the rains could cause floods, including flash floods, in prone
areas, destroying property and endangering life.
Trail
of death
By Thursday, March 7, floods had claimed six lives—
a heavy sacrifice even in the time of war.
Chikwawa
Police Station spokesperson, Foster Benjamin, said the victims were swept away
by flooding rivers, including Livuza and Mkhate, on Wednesday.
It
took a day for rescuers to find remains of the victims.
“One
of the dead people is Helles Maperera, a health surveillance assistant (HSA) at
Maperera Health Centre. Two of the dead were husband and wife,” he said.
This means, in the case of the HSA,
Malawi will have to dig deeper into its pockets to train more HSAs.
In 2011, according to the United
Nations Children’s Fund and Ministry of Health and Population, Malawi had about
12,000 HSAs, a vital link between village and the health system. The
HSAs work is carefully monitored by the village health committee,
which is composed of an equal number of men and women and serves for a term of three
years.
In a paper titled ‘Motivation of Health Surveillance Assistants
in Malawi: A Qualitative Study’, Kingsley R. Chikaphupha, Maryse C. Kok,
Lot Nyirenda, Ireen Namakhoma and Sally
Theobald indicate that motivation of health workers is a critical
component of performance and is shaped by multiple factors.
They cite salary, accommodation, human resource management,
supplies and logistics, and community links as the five main themes that shape
HSAs’ motivation.
They, however, observe that human resources for health
shortage remain a key challenge to the aspiration of achieving quality
universal health coverage in Malawi.
“In response to this, there have been increasing investments
in community health worker (CHW) programmes, with the aim of bringing health
services closer to communities and making services more accessible in
resource-constrained settings,” they write.
A CHW is a health worker who carries out promotional,
preventive or curative health services, and who is the first point of contact
at the community level.
“A CHW can be based in the community or in a basic primary
healthcare facility. In addition to specific aspects of their job descriptions,
CHW selection criteria, remuneration and incentives, training, supervision and
support structures vary by country and depend in part on the extent to which
CHWs are integrated into a health system as well as on the degree to which task
shifting has been implemented,” their paper reads in part.
With Maperera, investment in the health worker that was him
has been lost to floods, and it will take years before one like him can be
trained and positioned to serve rural dwellers.
This means, according to Benjamin, there is a human cost to
floods, which is why all efforts must be made to avert such crises where
possible.
Meanwhile, as the government and Shire Valley residents
grapple with the idea of relocation, relief items have, as usual, been directed
to people in affected areas.
Rescue
efforts
On
Saturday, Homeland Security Minister Nicholas Dausi— who oversees operations of
Dodma— left Blantyre City early in the morning with assorted relief items meant
for people affected by floods in Chikwawa, only to discover that the M1 Road
had been cut off at Domasi, a spot between Thabwa and Kamuzu Bridge across the Shire
River.
That
has been another effect of the floods: people being cut off from the rest of
Malawi, making transportation on land close to impossible.
Such
is the situation in Mainland Chikwawa and the East Bank, where six people
died last week, the highest among districts, according to Dodma.
By
March 11, 30 people were reported dead nationwide.
After
some roads have been cut off, Dausi failed to take relief items such as maize,
plastic sheets, buckets and blankets to the intended victims of the floods,
after President Peter Mutharika declared a state of national disaster last week.
Even
Malawi Defence Force personnel and their search and rescue equipment were stuck;
meaning that it was mission impossible.
No
wonder, the South African government has come in, pledging assistance to Malawi
at this point in time.
“I
have been here since yesterday. I am going to Nsanje to visit my parents but I
am stuck here,” said Joseph Mbundungu, one of the people found at Domasi.
Some
motorists forced their vehicles into thick mud and water, with some people
pushing them to provide an extra force at a fee ranging from K5,000 to K20,000.
Call it cashing in on disaster.
“I
have paid K500 for this man to carry me across. I have been greatly
inconvenienced because I did not plan for this expenditure,” said Mary Mbamba,
a businesswoman.
Linda
Saulosi, 70, escaped death by a whisker.
“My
house collapsed while I was lost in deep sleep. Fortunately, it collapsed
outwards and I am here to tell my story,” she said.
Hers
is one of the over 60 households that are being accommodated at Mediramu
Evacuation Centre. People homeless in their country. More so because the Shire
Valley districts of Nsanje and Chikwawa are, as before, the worst affected.
This
being the case, can Shire Valley people be accused of recklessness, or inviting
trouble to themselves and waiting to reap the benefits?
“I
think, this time, floods have affected most parts of the country and there is
no time to blame each other. We, as the government, just want to reach out to
all those affected,” Dausi said.
Indeed, as he made a short and anguished visit to Chikwawa that Saturday,
his Transport and Public Works Ministry counterpart, Jappie Mhango, was making a
long and anguished visit to Mangochi District, where floods have left scars of
pain.
On Sunday, Mhango toured Makumba, one of the four bridges which running
water washed away along the Mangochi-Makanjira Road last week.
This means rehabilitation works have started.
“We expect that the contractor we have engaged, Mota Engil, will be able to
open the road to traffic in the next four days. We want to make sure that
people’s economic activities are not negatively affected.
“As you are aware, President Peter Mutharika has declared Malawi a nation in
disaster. We are, therefore, set to repair all the damage which water has
caused in Mangochi, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and other districts. We know
that lives of people have been disturbed but
we will try to come in with relevant support,” Mhango said.
Mhango also said it was not time for blame-games, observing that it was time
to reach out to those affected in Chikwawa, Nsanje and other districts.
“But, sure enough, we need permanent solutions,” he said.
Mota Engil Project Manager, Jose Emmanuel Pereira, said his team would continue
assessing other bridges before advising the government on how best to improve them.
Apart from motorists, healthcare service delivery has suffered a battering
in the wake of the floods. In Mangochi, this means no referral services to
Mangochi District Hospital from Lulanga, Makanjira, Lugola, Kadango and
Lungwena health centres.
But Ministry of Health and Population spokesperson, Joshua Malango, said the
ministry was doing its best to ensure that healthcare service delivery is not
negatively affected.
Whatever the case, what is clear is that floods, a relatively silent crisis
when compared to prolonged drought, spur a ‘loud’ humanitarian crisis.
Unfortunately, the damage floods cause is not based on total ignorance in
all parts of the country; in some districts, it borders on neglect.
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