Malawi President Dr Lazarus Chakwera on Wednesday appeared in the August House where he submitted statement regarding the effects of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
While in Parliament, President Chakwera urged every member of Parliament to take part in the rebuilding process of the country.
The Malawi leader described the calamity as the first of its kind in the country with such huge magnitude of loss.
“Madam Speaker, regarding the question about what the cyclone has done to our country and our people, the impact goes far beyond the terrible loss of human life, the injuries, and the people missing I mentioned earlier. The cyclone has also left over half a million people displaced, following the washing away of over 100,000 homes. In some cases, entire villages were washed away. The humanitarian need this situation has created is beyond Malawi’s capacity to address without support, and so we have aggressively sought the intervention of our
development partners and international aid agencies.
“Though we are far from having enough support for the level of need we are seeing, so many have responded positively to our appeal, and I have personally committed to acknowledge every form of
support that either comes to or is reported to DoDMA, for the situation is so grave that we simply cannot take any contribution for granted,” he said.
Chakwera said in order to address the enormous humanitarian need created by the displacement of over half a million people in the short term, Government has placed them in camps, of which over 500 have been created so far.
He said his Government has leveraged all the support being received to supply those camps that are within reach with the humanitarian relief items for meeting the people’s need for shelter, for protection, for healthcare, for utensils, for WASH, and for food security.
“However, the supplies we are deploying are far from enough for the magnitude of the need, and even in some cases where supplies are available, it has been difficult to reach some areas because of roads that have been damaged and rendered impassable,” he said.
Chakwera said although the assessment of the damage caused to roads and other infrastructure is still ongoing, Government has already identified over 40 roads and bridges have been cut off, including several parts of the M1 Road.
He said it is sad that on the road from Kandodo Cornershop to Chileka Roundabout, the culvert collapsed around
Kabula Police. On the road from Blantyre to Zalewa, the pedestrian bridge has also been washed away around Lunzu.