Rains and flooding continue

Rains over the past week have continued to plague the southern African region, increasing the number of people who need shelter and food aid. Malawi According to the latest OCHA report released on Friday, the lack of access to flood-affected areas in Malawi has been preventing the delivery of food and non-food items to the needy. Quoting Malawi’s Department of Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation, the report said that floodwaters were receding in some regions, but that other areas mainly in the south remained inaccessible. “Many parts of the affected areas remain flooded and some of the non-affected areas continue to be at risk of being flooded because of continuing rains,” OCHA said. “The lack of access to the affected areas is of great concern. Food and non-food items are not reaching the people in need,” OCHA added, saying that the WFP Logistics Unit had approached the East African Railway Company to deliver food to areas that would be accessible once the floodwaters began receding. According to OCHA the number of people affected by floods in Malawi had remained unchanged on Friday at 334,985. The report said that from 12-19 March three assessment missions were conducted in Malawi - one by UNICEF, WHO and Malawi’s ministry of health and population; another by the FAO and the WFP, and another by USAID. UN agency leaders were expected to wrap up their visit to some of the flood-affected districts by 27 March, it added. It also said that the living conditions of the displaced were a cause for concern. “The FAO/WFP mission found that in Phalombe, in the southeast, food aid had not reached the people in public buildings, schools and churches. Many people were suffering from skin diseases, malaria and cholera,” the report said. In Chikawawa, one of the most affects districts in the south of the country, 85 cases of cholera and five cholera related deaths had been reported in spite of the government intensifying its cholera prevention programme. In addition, financial help to buy foodstocks was urgently required as the government’s disaster preparedness stock was depleted on 6 March. “There are adequate food reserve stocks of 55,000 mt in the country,” the report said. It noted that while the Malawi government had requested US $6.7 million in donor assistance, only US $273,971 had been received in cash and kind by Friday. Zambia In it latest situation report on Zambia, OCHA said on Friday that floodwaters still covered large parts of the country - mainly the eastern, northern, northwestern, copperbelt and central provinces. Drought conditions in the southern part of the country had compounded problems, the report said. In total, floods and drought had affected an estimated 1,448,530 people and the National Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) assessments in several districts had found that the high number of rainy days this year had resulted in food insecurity and the disruption of the transportation system, according to the report. Zambia had made no official appeal for donor funding, OCHA said, but the DMMU had listed requirements considered to be crucial in the months to come and more details on the support needed from the donor community were expected next week. Mozambique Meanwhile, flooding in central Mozambique worsened at the weekend, with the water levels of the two major rivers, the Zambezi and the Pungue, rising sharply. The opening of a fourth sluicegate on the Cabora Bassa dam on Saturday, and also more rain upriver, had contributed to the rising water levels, news reports said. The flooded Pungue river led to the closure of the Beira-Zimbabwe road. The road has been closed for the fourth time in less than two months because of flooding, the reports said.