Well, the rains seem to be ‘peeping’ through the clouds.
In fact, they have started falling in some parts of the country. Take, for instance, Blantyre City. This week, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday, I went back home with wet clothes.
From the look of things, the heavens are smiling at us; giving us the much-needed hope during this time of fuel, forex and other shortages.
As our friends at the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services have been telling us, we must get prepared for rains, which will fall on all of us at the ‘appointed’ time.
Interestingly, I have not heard reports of people relocating from floods-prone areas, especially in the Shire Valley. I am talking about people who are resistant to change; people who, despite getting repeated warnings to move out of disaster-prone areas, “stick to their guns”. Of course, I know that a soldier is not supposed to surrender their gun to anyone during combat but, then, some guns are too ‘hot’ to handle—whatever that means.
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What I am saying is that people who live in floods-prone areas have a chance to run away from danger—in the form of heavy winds, floods, among other things—and they can do so by seeking refugee in places that will be out of ‘reach’ for disasters.
Of course, disasters have minds of their own, meaning that what we think may happen may end up not happening and what we think may happen may end up not happening. That is the nature of emergencies.
However, some emergencies—like floods—can be anticipated. All one needs to do is to pay attention to what weather and climate experts are saying.
Needless to say, we are lucky in Malawi these days. In the past, weather and climate experts were synonymous with missed targets. I mean, people could say most of what such ‘experts’ were saying in the past was not coming to pass. The truth is, there was inadequate and less complicated equipment at that time. In fact, some of such equipment was placed far apart, such that it was easy to miss some weather phenomena somewhere—even if that place were less than 40 kilometres away.
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Today—and you can agree with me—things have changed. The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services is no longer the subject of people’s jokes. Indeed, after the experiences we had with storms and cyclones, especially from 2019 to 2024, the truth has hit home: take weather experts’ advice for granted at your own risk.
They told us we would have cyclones Freddy, Gombe, Idai, Ana, among others, and we had them—with disastrous consequences.
Oh, I remember Tropical Cyclone Freddy well. For two nights as the rains fell in droves, I could not sleep because the iron sheets of the house I stay in were being pulled apart. I had to keep pressing a long stick against them all night and, come daytime, I was fatigued.
Today, the ‘scars’ of the cyclone are still there at the house—worn-out paint, ‘potholes’ at the lounge, cracks on some parts of the wall, among other things.
I am saying all this to, humbly, ask my Shire Valley friends who stay in disaster-prone areas to relocate before things—God forbid—get out of hand.
And those who cling to disaster-prone areas must be charged with attempted suicide!
