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Surviving Malawi’s devastating floods

Malawi is suffering a humanitarian emergency and the impact of the record floods will be felt for months, if not years.

Malawi's economy is overwhelmingly dominated by agriculture. Four-in-five people in Malawi live in rural areas, and agriculture accounts for 90 percent of the country's export revenues and one-third of its GDP.
By Richard Nield
Published On 7 Feb 2015

Phalombe, Malawi – More than a million people have been affected by Malawi’s worst rains in the 50 years since independence in 1964. Floods have washed away tens of thousands of houses, destroyed crops, and wiped out livestock in the southern African nation – one of the poorest in the world.

According to UN figures published on February 4, 336,000 people have been displaced by the floods, which hit 15 of Malawi’s 28 districts. There have been 104 confirmed deaths and 172 people are missing. The broader impact of the destruction of agriculture means that an estimated 1.15 million people have been affected nationwide.

International aid organisations have stepped in to try to provide food, shelter and basic services for those who have been displaced. The government has declared a State of Disaster, and donors have agreed to divert funding.

Reaching everyone in need is proving a close to impossible task. The unprecedented scale of the disaster and the way in which the population has been scattered make the delivery of aid extremely challenging.

Rain continues to fall in Malawi, steadily increasing the number of displaced.

Living conditions for those displaced offer perfect conditions for the rapid spread of deadly diseases such as cholera and measles. In tests carried out on young children by Medecins Sans Frontieres in the district of Nsanje, 80 percent were positive for malaria.

Thousands of people are still without food aid, and if a narrow window of opportunity to replant devastated crops is missed, food shortages will persist for another year.

Malawi is suffering a devastating humanitarian emergency, but without immediate intervention, the impact of the floods will be felt for months, if not years to come.

Thousands cut off from aid in disastrous Malawi floods

Malawi's main crop is maize, which is used to make the local staple nsima. A successful maize harvest relies on the rains that come between December and March every year. For the past three years, poor rains have hit the country's crop yield, placing an added burden on the aid required to feed the population.
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Before the rains came, this was a thriving market in the town of Phaloni in the district of Phalombe, selling fruit, vegetables and second-hand clothes. But over a three-day period beginning on January 11, all this changed. The market was flooded, houses washed away and agricultural land turned into a vast lake.
Most of the roads in Malawi are unpaved, and when the rains come they become impassable. The intense rains this year have not only displaced hundreds of thousands of people, but have also made many of them impossible to reach.
Those who lost their homes in the flooding sit on the ground of the local school where they have been staying since the middle of January, in the hope that food aid will eventually arrive.
Many of those displaced can no longer be reached by road. The only way for aid organisations to reach them with vital aid is by helicopter. Five helicopters have been flying aid missions, including one provided by the World Food Programme, one by the Malawian military and one privately operated.
These few tents are home to more than 600 people who gathered at Tchereni after their houses were destroyed by the flooding. Before the tents arrived, they slept on the floors of a local school. Latrines are still being erected, and there are no blankets. The one borehole providing water is far from sufficient to meet the needs of those living at the camp, many of whom walk or cycle for several hours to supplement the supply.
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Continued rains are severely hampering the access of aid to flooded areas. This truck foundered in the mud near Phaloni, blocking the road to all other traffic. Many people in the flooded districts of Phalombe, Nsanje and Chikwawa could only be reached by helicopter.
Once a vehicle is stuck in the mud it can be hours or sometimes days before it is rescued, posing a huge obstacle to the aid effort.
Even before the flooding, Malawi was heavily reliant on international aid. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with three-quarters of the population living on less than $1.25 a day. The months between December and March are known as the 'hunger season'. This aid distribution, by Adventist Development and Relief Agency, is part of a scheme to help 7,000 people living in parts of Phalombe whose harvest last year was affected by drought.
With so much of the land drowned in floods, bicycles are becoming an increasingly important part of life for those in Malawi. For many of those facing the crisis, walking and cycling are the only means to secure the basics for survival.
Egifa Chinwaza, 40, is one of more than 600 victims of the flooding who sought refuge in a school at Tchereni in Phalombe. Her house was destroyed by the floods and her crops were ruined, and she lost all of her possessions. She and her seven children slept on the floor of the school for almost three weeks before tents arrived.
Mary Mandelumbe, 27, has been selling fish since she was 15 years old. She has five children, aged between five and 16. When the rains came to Phaloni, she sought refuge with dozens of others in the local church.