Heavy rains have caused flooding in 13 districts in Malawi affecting some 200,000 people. The rains that intensified in mid February caused the main rivers in the country to overflow with Nsanje district being the worst affected with 22, 400 people from 217 villages being displaced. The Evangelical Lutheran Development Programme (ELDP) requested for a Rapid Response Fund and US$30,000 was sent to them for immediate emergency intervention in Zomba, Phalombe and Kalonga districts.

ACT members, the Evangelical Lutheran Development Programme and Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) propose to provide a much wider response to the affected people in their respective areas of operation. The following are the activities that will be covered by the two ACT members:

• Shelter (Home Reconstruction)
• Relief Food Distribution
• Water and Sanitation
• Food Security ( Provision of seeds and tools)
• Community Training in Disaster Preparedness

CARD – 31 August 2001

ELDP - 31 December 2001

Signed by:
Thor-Arne Prois, ACT Coordinator
Geneviève Jacques, Director, Cluster on Relations, World Council of Churches
Rudolf Hinz, Director, Department for World Service, Lutheran World Federation

Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) has comprehensive experience in handling relief programmes which dates way back to 1988. CARD was formed in November 1995 out of what was the Relief and Development Department of the Christian Council of Malawi. Since 1988 the organisation has been involved in a number of relief activities including:

• Assistance to refugees from 1988 to 1995. Malawi hosted a large population of Mozambican refugees fleeing from civil war in their country. During this era refugees needed assistance such as shelter, food, social amenities, clothing, building materials and many more. CARD contributed towards the efforts of government, and other non-governmental organisations in assisting the refugees in various camps in Malawi, while a durable solution was being sought. CARD assisted with shelter provision, distribution of food items and other materials to the refugees.
• Malawi experienced what was termed the worst drought during the 1991/92 growing season. This adversely affected the livelihood of many Malawians and in 1993/94 there was a re-occurrence of the drought in some parts of the country but of a relatively smaller magnitude. CARD assisted a majority of people with relief food distribution which saved many who were on the verge of starving to death.
• The country also experienced floods in the 1980’s and 1990’s some of which had adverse effects on the lives of Malawians, especially those living in the flood prone areas of Chikwawa and Nsanje. Chikwawa and Nsanje suffered severely heavy flooding in 1989, 1996 and 1998 with most of the floods resulting from heavy rains in the uplands of Malawi. These rains led to bursting of Shire River which is the only outlet of Lake Malawi.
• During 1997/98 rainy season, Malawi suffered the consequences of the El Niño phenomenon which caused drought conditions in some areas in the country.

In the 1999 rainy season, however, Malawi was exposed to La Nina phenomenon which was quite the opposite to EL Nino. During La Nina, Malawi received above average rainfall which resulted in heavy floods in Chikwawa, Zomba, Karonga and Mulanje. CARD assisted people in Karonga and Mulanje.

In the year 2000, some parts of Malawi experienced yet another flood situation. Districts such as Karonga, Chikwawa, Nsanje, Nkhotakota and Nkhata-Bay were among the most severely affected. CARD assisted people in Karonga with maize and rice seeds as well as maize for food. Card also provided a training programme to enhance the capacity of people in disaster preparedness and mitigation. The choice of Karonga district was due to two main reasons: firstly because CARD was working in the district in 1999 and secondly, Karonga was the most severely hit district by floods that year.

Background
Malawi is a small landlocked country in the Southern Africa Region sharing borders with Tanzania to the North, Zambia to the West, and Mozambique to the south and east. It is sub-divided into three Regions: North, Centre and South. The North has six districts, while the Centre and South have nine and twelve districts respectively.

Agriculture accounts for over 90% of the country’s export earnings and over 80% of the country’s population depends on agriculture either directly or indirectly.

The country’s rains on which the bulk of agricultural production depends, normally start in October/November and finish in April. This is usually known as the cropping season.

The 2000/2001 Cropping Season In Malawi
Most parts of Malawi, started receiving rains in early November 2000 including those drought prone districts such as Nsanje, Chikwawa and Karonga.

During the period to end December 2000, some areas within the country experienced a short dry spell. In January 2001, rains resumed in most districts in Malawi and the season was being viewed as good for agricultural production. However, some places in Malawi started to experience flooding which became more intense in some districts.

By mid to end February 2001, 13 of the 27 districts in the country continued to experience heavy flooding which had negative effects on crop production, livestock and human settlements. These districts are Nsanje, Chikwawa, Thyolo, Phalombe, Mangochi, Machinga and Zomba in the Southern Region, Mchinji, Salima, Ntcheu and Nkhotakota in the Central Region, Karonga and Rumphi in the Northern Region. Out of these, Nsanje and Salima are the most severely affected and CARD plans to work in these two districts.

Nsanje District
Nsanje District is located at the southern tip of the country within the region normally called the "Lower Shire". The district is bordered by Chikwawa to the north, Thyolo to the north east and Mozambique to the south, south west and south east. Nsanje has a history of floods and drought due to its location in the Lower Shire.

The district has this year experienced the worst floods with over 22,454 farming families displaced from their homes and becoming homeless.

A total of 217 villages in Nsanje were reported severely affected by floods at the end of February 2001 with a fear of more people being displaced since rains were still continuing in the upper parts of Malawi. See details of people affected in Table 1 below.

Salima District
Salima District is located in the Central Region of Malawi. It is bordered by Dedza and Dowa to the west, south west; Nkhotakota to the north, Lake Malawi to the east, and Mangochi to the southeast.

The Lake Shore Salima District is flood prone due to a number of criss-cross rivers passing through the district to Lake Malawi that originate from mountains of districts especially Dowa and Dedza.

A total of 10,000 farming families had their gardens destroyed by flooding as a result of small rivers bursting due to heavy rains falling in the hilly areas in Dowa and Dedza. See details of the areas affected in table 2 below.

SOURCE: Salima District Administration, February 2001.

Current Situation
The heavy rains are continuing to threaten many lives – this year Malawi has received above normal rainfall. Most people in flood affected areas have lost their crops on which they depend for their livelihood.

In Nsanje for example, all the low-lying areas are quite uninhabitable and this may continue until the end of March if rains continue as at present.

On the larger scale, the water level of the Shire River that passes through Chikwawa and Nsanje is also greatly affected by the flow of the Zambezi River. The Kariba Dam and Kaborabasa Dam along the Zambezi River have been opened to protect the two dams. Unfortunately the opening of the two dams allows large volumes of water along the Zambezi River causing a back-flow of water on River Shire. The back-flow is also feared to cause flooding of the Shire Rivers hence affecting people settled in these areas.

The government of Malawi, through the Commission for Disaster Preparedness, Relief and Rehabilitation Office has distributed some short period relief of food, household utensils, and blankets. However, the supplies are not enough compared to the nature of disaster in the district.

The overall goal is to minimise the suffering among the people affected by floods.

• To provide relief food to a total of 32,454 farming families affected by floods in Nsanje and Salima.
• To resuscitate the agricultural production systems damaged by the floods through provision of maize, soya, and agricultural implements.

This programme is divided into two phases – emergency and post-emergency.

In each phase a different approach has been adopted. See table 4 for details:

Those targeted include only the most vulnerable flood affected people. The programme also aims to assist people with seeds especially those whose gardens were flooded but are expected to be utilized for winter cultivation. Distribution of seed has been planned during the emergency phase so that people can return to their garden areas soon after the floodwaters subside.

CARD plans to provide both food and non food items in Nsanje and Salima districts. The basis for the supply of the items are two fold.

As the majority of the Malawians depend on agriculture for their livelihood most of the land for the targeted communities have been affected by the flood and hence require food as a short-term measure and growing the food as a long term measure (agriculture inputs).

CARD will therefore provide:

Implementation Description per Activity
CARD will procure all relief items locally and as there will be bulk purchases, CARD will negotiate fair prices. Local transporters will be used on contractual terms to ferry the items to Nsanje and Salima district Administration warehouses for storage. From the warehouses, requisitions will be made by CARD staff for distribution to the selected centres. CARD staff, assisted by government relief staff will carry out the physical distribution of the items.

Six CARD staff members will be positioned in Nsanje and two in Salima district. 10 volunteers will be used to load and off load the relief items. At the distribution centres, the communities will also be involved in the distribution exercises, including loading and off-loading.

A vehicle and a motorcycle will be used to monitor these activities by the CARD staff.

In Nsanje CARD will be operating from the CARD field office while in Salima a temporary office or space (the warehouse) will be used as an office space.

Transition from emergency
CARD will provide some food for the communities, especially in Nsanje, for at least the next 5 months. Although, farmers will be facilitated in preparation of their gardens and planting materials (seeds and planting tools) to utilise residual moisture in their gardens, field operations will be an ongoing exercise for most farmers until planting and harvesting of the main crop.

Most of the children under 5 years of age in the areas affected by the floods are underweight.

As a nutrition element in the programme, soya beans (a source of protein) will be provided to families with children under five. Maize and soya beans will be ground as flour to prepare porridge for the children, the aged and disabled persons. Training will be conducted especially for the mothers to help them in the preparation and feeding of the children.

The Programme Manager for CARD will manage the programme with support from the Execute Director, Finance and Administration Manager and other support staff at Head Quarters.

In Nsanje a Project Co-ordinator will have the overall responsibility of co-ordinating all day to day relief activities including record keeping and linking with other partners at the field level. The co-ordinator will have an assistant and other food relief staff involved in the distributions. Local volunteers in distribution exercises will assist the relief staff.

In Salima District there will only be two members of staff – the Co-ordinator and his assistant. The others will be volunteer staff.

Distribution and all other related relief program reports will be channelled to the Program Manager who will produce the overall report to ACT International. Quarterly reports will be produced covering all activities.

The Finance and Administration Manager will be responsible for the financial monitoring and facilitation of the audit and expenditure controls.

Finance Management Control
Once the funds for the program are received, a separate bank account will be created with its budget line in the account books for auditing purposes and follow-up.

All expenditures are followed through payment vouchers and expenditure checked against the budget lines through financial statements produced on a monthly basis in accordance with reporting guidelines.

Monitoring and Structures

Director

Programme Manager / Finance and Administration Manager

Relief Coordinator Nsanje (1) / Relief Coordinator Salima (1)

Assistant Relief Coordinator / Assistant Relief Coordinator (1)

Relief Workers (4) / Volunteer staff (varied)

Volunteer staff (varied)

The Program Manager and/or other Senior Management staff will pay fortnightly visits to the various distribution centres. Visits in between would also be essential to monitor progress. The Program Manager will receive weekly reports on planned activities by telephone and/or faxes. The co-ordinators will be CARD contact points in the two districts.

Through the Church Development Co-ordination Committee comprising church affiliated agencies, CARD is able to co-ordinate its activities with ACT members and other church related institutions. In addition, CARD has been appointed by the Malawi Government to be a member of the adhoc-committee for the Emergency response to the 2001 disaster. Through that meeting and meetings held with Chief Executive in the affected areas, CARD is able to link with Government and other local and international institutions.

In the emergency area, the Chief Executive is the chairman of the District Development Committee to which CARD (in the case of Nsanje) is a member. It is through such meetings that emergency operation for all other agencies, including the Government is co-ordinated.

• The Evangelical Lutheran Development Programme (ELDP) - a development programme of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM)

The Evangelical Lutheran Development Programme was established in 1989 in response to a request from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM) and the Government of Malawi primarily to provide assistance to Mozambican refugees who were then in Malawi. While an open, multiyear agreement signed between the Malawi Government and ELDP legitimized all operations in the country, the Letter of Understanding (LoU) signed every second year between ELCM and LWF/DWS formalizes the close working relationship between the church and the Department for World Service.

During the years of refugee work, (1989-1994) ELDP activities concentrated on areas of environmental protection, tin smithing and skills training and provision of other non-food items. During the same years, it was realized that local Malawian communities hosting refugees were as deserving of assistance as the refugees were. They were in abject poverty such that a component known as Rural Community Motivation and Development (RCMD) was established within the ELDP. This concentrated in the provision of safe and clean water, food security initiatives, functional adult literacy and reforestation.

After the repatriation, the activities of the programme have concentrated more on assisting Malawians to rehabilitate, what in most cases are, devastated environments in former refugee impacted areas through the provision of some sustainable rehabilitation initiatives such as community-based environmental rehabilitation including reforestation, agroforestry, environmental education and a higher degree of food security interventions to the rural poor. This is taking place along side the Rural Community Motivation and Development activities.

The programme has also been actively involved in emergency operations. In 1992-1993, ELDP successfully carried out a joint drought relief programme with Christian Council of Malawi (CCM) in the northern districts of Karonga and Rumphi. During the same years, ELDP assisted the government with drought relief operations in Mulanje district (now Phalombe district). ELDP has also within the years assisted flood-affected people in Nsanje jointly with Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD), and also in Chikwawa jointly with World Food Programme (WFP).

About Malawi
Malawi is a landlocked Country with varying terrain across it. It has main highland areas of Nyika and Viphya Plateaus to the North and other parts of the country, with the highest elevation point on Mount Mulanje called Sapitwa (3002m). Most low lying areas are found along the lake Shore, with lowest elevation point located at the junction of the Shire river and the international boundary with Mozambique (37m). Lake Malawi is the largest lake among  other  lakes namely Chirwa, Malombe, and Kazuni.
Malawi experiences a tropical Climate with dry seasons during the months of May to November and rainy season during the other months particularly December to March.

Background
Malawi this time has been hit by floods and so far 13 districts have been affected. At least 200 000 people have been rendered homeless by floods that have hit 13 of the 27 districts in Malawi. Floods caused by overflowing rivers due to heavy rains being received since mid February to date have displaced people in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Thyolo, Phalombe, Machinga, Mangochi, Ntcheu, Mchinji, Salima, Nkhotata Kota, Karonga and Rumphi districts. However, the Commissioner for Relief and Rehabilitation said the worst hit district is Nsanje with 22 454 people from 217 villages displaced. Official head count indicates that 194 000 people have been displaced but the figure could be more than 200 000.

ELDP will intervene in the following districts:

• Chikwawa
• Phalombe
• Zomba
• Nkhota kota
• Karonga

ELDP has already responded to the emergency through provision of relief items to affected people in Chikwawa. The items were donated commodities from Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) which included quilts, baby blankets, children’s clothes, women’s and men’s clothing, layettes and soap.

A Rapid Response Fund granted by ACT will assist to reach more victims in Zomba, Phalombe and Karonga. The items will include plastic sheeting, household utensils, supplementary food for young children, plastic water containers. These items will meet immediate household needs for those affected.

Current Situation
The emergency ranges from Crisis to Post-Crisis Phase. In Karonga, and Nkhota kota, the emergency is at Post Crisis phase because people have resettled either with relatives and are out of danger. In Chikwawa, Phalombe and Zomba, the affected people are still camping at public buildings such as schools and churches. Unfortunately, some of these buildings are also falling due to wet conditions in these areas.

The rains that have caused these floods started falling on 15 January and have continued till end February 2001. Because of continued rainy situations, most parts of Malawi have exceeded their maximum rains. Nkhota kota receives maximum rainfall of 800 mm per annum. As of end February 2001, they had already received over 1 000 mm of rains (200 mm above expected amount). The situation has been like this in most parts. The low-lying areas of Chikwawa and Nsanje are in a disadvantage because any rain that falls in higher districts of Blantyre and Mwanza contribute to the swelling of rivers that run down these two districts. The Shire river also contributes to the flooding situation along the valley. Below is a brief description of the situation for each area:

Chikwawa
The flooding in this district has been due to excessive rains causing rivers Nyakamba and Shire to flood. This situation has affected both districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje. The situation of these low altitude districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje (at 200 feet above sea level) was made worse because the floods control gates at Kariba and Caborra Bassa dams on the Zambezi river into which the Shire river flows were opened, making the Shire River hold water back in Malawi.

Flying over the flood-hit areas by helicopter one could easily mistake the areas in Nsanje and Chikwawa for a large body of water that appeared to be as if it is in contact with the sky. From the large water mass, only scores of submerged houses visible through the apex of grass-thatched roofs from the air were evidence that the areas under water were once people’s settlements.

Floods destroyed both dwelling units and crops because the area is very flat and most communities lie along river banks.

Zomba and Phalombe
A fly over Lake Chilwa areas of Zomba and Phalombe districts also showed rice and maize gardens that have been washed away while 2 trading centers in Phalombe and bridges were swept away by water. Crossing the rivers was only possible using canoes while some desperately threw caution to the wind and waded through the waters whose levels went beyond their hips.

Many households have been displaced and are seeking shelter at churches and schools. Many children trapped in this situation are in danger of suffering from malnutrition due to lack of adequate food of any kind. Visiting Phaloni School in Zomba, one could see children lying in hunger and their lives threatened. Photo on cover page illustrate this situation.

In Zomba, the floods have affected Chief Mwambo, Mlumbe and Nkagula’s areas. In Chief Mwambo’s area, 18 villages have been affected, 63 houses damaged and thus affecting 2 216 farm families in the process. In Chief Kuntumanji area, 19 villages have been affected, 123 houses damaged, thus affecting 2 181 farm families in the process. In Chief Mlume’s area, 4 villages have been affected, 2 houses reported damaged and 62 farm families displaced.

In total 500 hectares of crop have been washed away in these areas. At least 2 members of one family were reported dead at Mtutuma village in Sub Nkagula area after a house collapsed on them.

In these districts, floods affected dwelling units more than crops because their gardens are in higher grounds. The area most affected is the area lying along the Lake Chilwa basin and those lying along the banks of rivers feeding this lake.

Karonga
In Karonga districts 13 villages have been affected by floods and the damage assessed so far cover an estimated area of 91.6 hectares. In total 398 households have been affected in the process. Also affected are 26 ha. of cassava belonging to 147 households and 0.1 ha. of tomatoes belonging to 1 household.

The affected villages are under Sub Traditional Authority Mwerang’ombe in Nyungwe area and these are: Mchekacheka, Maxwell, Mziba, Mwandukutu, Kamtembo, Mwacheseke plus 7 more villages.

Minimal damage has occurred to their dwelling units according to reports received so far.

More rains continue to be received and it is expected that more areas will be affected. No assistance has since been provided to the affected people.

Nkhota Kota
According to information from the Government officials, 2 areas have been affected so far. These are in Traditional Authority Mwazama in Mtosa area. In this area, 3 villages of Chengwe, Nyanja and Nakutuwa have been affected. The other part affected is under Traditional Authority Kanyenda in Dwangwa area north of Nkhota Kota where 3 villages of Nkhondo, Chimata and Sikalinga have been affected. The damage has been as a result of flooding river banks that took place in large rivers of Dwangwa and Bua.

Damage has also been reported in 3 Extension Planning Area (EPA) due to water-logging condition and continued wet conditions. In Zidyana EPA, 93 villages and 9 900 households have been affected. The crops affected include maize, rice, cassava and cotton. In Linga EPA, 84 villages (5 228 households) have been affected.

The water logging is resulting in many houses collapsing or developing deep cracks rendering them not worth human habitation.

Impact On Human Lives
The flooding has had varying degrees on different communities. In Chikwawa, Zomba and Phalombe, many dwelling units collapsed resulting in many people seeking shelter either at school buildings or churches. Because of the sudden nature of the flooding, many affected people could not save their belongings. They were in such a hurry to save their lives that saving property became second priority. As they camp now, they lack basic items such as beddings, utensils, food, and toilets.

This situation reduces people’s dignity such that they have become so traumatized with the situation.

So far, the situation is as below per district: