By Patience Lunda:
Government through the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has said it will relocate an estimated population of 105,902 (about 23,533 households) which was affected and displaced by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in the Southern Region, to safer and higher areas.
According to Dodma, they are working with seven councils of Nsanje, Chikwawa, Machinga, Mulanje, Zomba, Chiradzulu and Thyolo for the relocation.
In a written response, Dodma spokesperson, Chipiliro Khamula said councils have made a good progress in land identification for the relocation exercise and they expect the people to move before the start of this year’s rainfall season.
Khamula, however, decried lack of social amenities in the identified areas but stressed that they are working towards a dignified resettlement.
“The role of councils is mainly on identifying land for relocation in consultation with the affected people, chiefs and other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Lands and humanitarian partners,” he said.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation Executive Director, Michael Kaiyatsa said there is need for constant consultations with those to be displaced for fear that they would return to the flood prone areas.
Kaiyatsa then asked Dodma and councils to put serious steps that would bring social amenities available for those to be relocated as failure to do so construes violation of human rights.
“It’s not good to impose on people about where they will be relocated to but they should be consulted too so that the relocation should be accepted and I am saying this because there have been times when people have been relocated to places where they don’t like and they ended up going back to areas they were before,” he said.
This far, a total of 6,000 households which is approximately 27,000 people who were affected by Tropical Storm Ana and Cyclones Idai and Gombe have been moved to safer places in Chikwawa District.
In March this year, Cyclone Freddy made a landfall in Malawi affecting over 500, 000 people. Additionally, public infrastructure such as schools, health facilities and roads were damaged in all affected districts in the Southern Region.
