ADB grant will help flood victims, food insecure

The African Development Bank (ADB), has approved a grant of US $500,000 to help the victims of the 2002 flood in Malawi. The heavy rains in December 2001 and January 2002 destroyed hundreds of hectares of cropland, drowned livestock, displaced thousands of households and damaged railway lines, access roads and houses in several districts. They also worsened the country's precarious food supplies, which has left about three million Malawians in need of food aid. This assistance aims to alleviate the suffering of the people affected by the floods and would provide resources for the procurement and distribution of food for about 100,000 people, a statement said. About 800 mt of maize and 190 mt of pulses would be procured and distributed by the World Food Programme (WFP). The seven flood-prone districts were Chikwawa, Machinga, Nsanje, Phalombe and Zombe in the south and Nkhotakota and Salima in the centre of the country. The grant would also be used to provide the necessary operational and logistics support for the implementation of the emergency food aid programme, the total cost of which amounts to US $1.6 million. The latest ADB intervention was in keeping with emergency humanitarian relief operations concluded after natural catastrophes in some regional member countries, the statement said. The required goods and services would be procured exclusively from the territories of member countries of the bank.