Reduce impact of floods—Rev Nyondo
CCAP Livingstonia Synod general secretary the Reverend Levi Nyondo has urged government to find long-term solutions to minimising the impact of floods in the country.
Nyondo said this on Thursday at the launch of a K57 million Karonga Flood Response Project that the Development Department of the Synod is implementing in the district.
He said although floods are mostly natural occurrences, chiefs and district councils need to find ways of reducing their impact.
“Most of the houses in Karonga are in low areas. Some have built right close to the rivers. They need to move away from such areas to higher grounds,” Nyondo said.
He said this will reduce the number of people being affected by floods, thereby lessening pressure on organisations to donate every year.
“As long as we have rains there will be floods. So, organisations may not have the capacity to donate every year,” said Nyondo.
In response, Karonga district commissioner Emmanuel Bambe said his office is exploring various ways of reducing impact of floods.
“[For example], we engaged Paladin Africa and they donated K4 million, which we used for the renovation of a destroyed river bank. But we overlooked the fact that more was supposed to be done,” he said.
Bambe, therefore, called on chiefs to ask their subjects to move away from flood prone areas.
“Chiefs know the areas which are most hit by floods. They have the duty to talk to their people to move away from such areas,” he said.
Nyondo also called on communities to patronise government’s initiatives of replanting trees on bare hills as a way of protecting low-lying areas against floods.
Karonga Flood Response is a two-month project covering May and June this year with sponsorship from Dan Church Aid, a Danish faith-based organisation.
Around 850 vulnerable households, out of the 5 658 affected households in the district, are expected to receive a cash transfer of K15 000 each for two months, mosquito nets, Waterguard, plastic sheets, maize seeds and sweet potato vines.
