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afrol.com, 9 March - In response to one of the worst natural disasters on record to hit Malawi, the United Nations World Food Programme today announced that it will start this weekend distributions of emergency food to some 60,000 people stranded by torrential floods. - Tens of thousands of people who have fled to higher and dryer ground have only managed to take enough food to sustain them for a few days, said Adama Diop-Faye, WFP Country Director for Malawi. "The number of Malawians displaced by the floods pounding the region is growing every day and we are moving in food as quickly as possible to prevent a humanitarian disaster." Abnormally heavy rains have battered the southern African countries of Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe for the past several weeks, causing dams to overflow and rivers such as the Zambezi and Shire to burst their banks, destroying crops, inundating villages and demolishing houses, bridges, roads and railways throughout the region. WFP food assessment teams just returned from missions to the four most-affected districts of Nsanje and Chikwawa in the south, and Salima and Nkhotakota in central Malawi, report that nearly 280,000 people have been negatively affected by the floods in one way or another in these four districts alone. Thirteen districts have been affected to some extent throughout the country. "Victims are in need of food aid, and non-food items such as blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils, medicine and potable water," said Diop-Faye. Four years after the 1997 floods, Malawi is facing an even worse crisis - which has displaced more than 130,000 people from their homes to date. Many Malawians have sought shelter with relatives, while others have fled to public buildings with no access to food or potable water. While the Malawian government has been feeding flood victims through its Department of Disaster Preparedness Relief and Rehabilitation, its food stocks are quickly running dry. Vice President Justin Malewezi appealed to the donor community for $US 6.7 million of relief aid to assist 360,000 people countrywide in the impoverished country of 11 million people. WFP has stepped in at the request of the Malawian government in providing food relief assistance by borrowing some 560 tonnes of food from other programs in country to feed the most needy 60,000 flood victims in Nsanje, Chikwawa and Salima districts. Food consisting of maize, beans and likuni phala, a maize soya blend for children under five, is primarily being delivered by road, boat and/or canoe. However, the 42,100 residents Nsanje District’s Makhanga and Makhokwe areas may receive food by army helicopter drops because they have been completely cut off by the floods. - We are pooling all of our resources and energy to assist these Malawians in their time of greatest need, said Diop-Faye. The WFP immediate relief assistance, worth some US$ 180,000, will feed families for some three to four weeks while an expanded emergency flood operation is being prepared for the medium-term. Source: WFP
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