FLOOD VICTIMS REPORT- MUONA, MALAWI JANUARY Prepared by William Allan

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1 FLOOD VICTIMS REPORT- MUONA, MALAWI JANUARY 2015 Prepared by William Allan

2 Muona, Malawi has experienced one of the deadliest floods since time in memorial. Malawi is currently experiencing floods particularly in Karonga, Salima, Mangochi, Machinga, Mulanje, Thyolo, Nsanje and Chikwawa districts. Among the affected districts, Nsanje is worst hit with the highest number of deaths. It is confirmed that 176 people from both Nsanje and Chikwawa are dead but Muona alone has over 100 people who died. About 85,000 people are displaced and one of the villages, Manyowa village, all the houses were washed away and most of the people missing. The rain in Muona started on 7 th January It rained continuously till the 9 th of January On 10 th January 2015 the rain stopped in the morning and the weather was very fine till mid-day. The rain started again in the afternoon of that same day. It was too heavy that people couldn t manage to hear each other in the houses. The torrential rain continued all night till the following morning. It continued to rain heavily till the situation became critical on 13 th January 2015 when reports of flooding water reached most of the households in Muona. The man managed to rescue just his door and water pots from his house a few days after the floods occurred in Muona Ruo River, the river which shares border between Malawi and Mozambique swelled and changed its normal course. This river originates from Mulanje Mountain and on its way to the valley, it is joined by several rivers making it so dangerous when it reaches the valley(muona) The victims are those who were busy with the daily activities. Some were found working in their gardens, some were selling fruits at the marshes all the way from the mountains, some were at home. The sudden appearance of the floods put them in a state of confusion. They couldn t think for a second what to take and where to run to for safety.

3 Those who were closer to the school they run to the school for safety in the class rooms. Those who had trees close by they climbed in the trees, and those who managed to get to the higher ground for safety they did so. The effort to rescue most of the families became difficult in the first place because there were no rescue boats. There was a man who is a ward cancellor for part of Muona who did his best to start rescue operation before the authorities knew the problem. This man urgently requested Muona Foundation for a hand to hire boats from fishermen and send them for the rescue mission. Muona Foundation was also requested to provide food if possible to the flood victims who just arrived at the temporary camp that was set for easy co-ordination of the rescue mission. At one primary school (Namiyala Primary school) the people from the surrounding villages gathered there and filled all the 8 class rooms. The water level was so high that they had to put desks on top of each other and people had to climb on top of the mounted desks. Even though they were standing on the desks water level went up to as high as their chests for most of them. Muona Foundation hired 10 boats and and none of the ten boats managed to reach the school because the water was moving so fast from the mountain. At another school nearby, the Head teacher and his family were asked to leave but the head teacher feared for the government property which was at the school like food for the school children as this school was one of the feeding centres, a programme introduced by government to encourage children to attend school in their large numbers. Suddenly a mountain of water reached the school and his wife and his son were swept at once. He tried to find a safe place within the school but there wasn t much time to do that. He was overpowered by the water and carried down the flooding route. Fortunately for him there is a grave yard nearby and by tradition many people are afraid to cut down trees from the grave yard for fear of spirits. This means the grave yard has more trees and shrubs which helped this teacher to perch on one of the trees. He has been on this tree for three days and nights without water or food. All these days no one could manage to reach him and others in a similar situation in different parts of the flooded area.

4 Another group of 90 victims was trapped at one of the local churches in the area. Equally no one could reach them due to shortage of boats, inadequate information to government officials to enable them plan speedy rescue mission. They also spent five days and nights without food and water because they were at a dangerous place, very close to the fast flowing Ruo River which shares border between Malawi and Mozambique. On the 5 th day since this group was surrounded by flooding water, I organised three boxes of pre-packed porridge (Maheu). This was the day when the first victims were to be evacuated from the site as the water level was down and the first boat managed to reach them and gave them hope of survival. The first batch of seven passengers was loaded into a boat and started on a dangerous journey through the river infested with a lot of crocodiles, huge stones and logs of wood brought down by the floods. After 40 minutes while the on lookers from the other side and relatives, friends and loved ones of the victims were waiting patiently and curiously to see if the boat will arrive safely on the other side and if their loved ones were part of those in the boat or just to get the news that they are alive or not. The boat arrived safely on the shore and the ladies shade tears of joy after seeing some of the people they know. One of the ladies from the boat fell to the ground and cried after seeing her mother and other children who were safe with their grandmother. The packed porridge was given to children only because they were more vulnerable and When I gave a bottle to one of them he couldn t hold a 300ml bottle of porridge. He had no strength. Older ladies had to help feed them. The boat man was congratulated for his courage to save the survivors. All the rescued victims were brought to two camps within Muona. The first camp is at Mbwazi Primary school and this site was chosen because it is closer to Trinity Hospital and it has all the facilities like toilets and enough class rooms to accommodate the survivors and all the affected people who are registered to receive the relief supplies. The second camp is at Fatima Boys primary school and this camp takes care of all the affected people from areas around the rice scheme in Muona and the surrounding villages. Muona Foundation distributed maize to both camps when the situation worsened before other NGOs came in for help.

5 The floods also washed away all the electricity lines from Bangula to Trinity hospital and thekerani mission. Lack of electricity has impacted negatively on the operations of the hospital. The water pumps stopped working rendering the hospital to be without water. The generator developed an electrical fault rendering the hospital to operate without back up power. This situation is putting at risk lives of patients since blood, vaccines and other medicine requiring refrigerators are not functioning properly. The water tanks are empty and the hospital s gravity water system is completely washed away by the heavy rains. All support staff were busy drawing water for cleaning from the river and from the nearby borehole for drinking in the hospital. The damage caused by these floods are huge. People lost property like houses and personal effects, crops, animals food. In one village the whole village was wiped out. Water took away everything on its way and filled a large area with sand as if it is at the beach. In this situation the survivors require food, plates, cups, mosquito nets, blankets, as immediate needs. They also need tents for temporary shelter as medium term need and for the long term need they require seeds and fertilizer so that they can engage in winter cropping so that after three months or so they can harvest considering that food aid can t be given to them for-ever.

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