President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration has constructed a K376 million worthy evacuation center in the disaster-prone district of Nsanje. The center has been situated in Mchacha James Village, TA Mlolo in the district.
The center was unveiled on Friday, 20th October, 2023, by Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs, Charles Kalemba, who was accompanied by officials from Nsanje District Council.
President Chakwera, while visiting people affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy (TCF) this year, promised some additional measures to be taken calculated at containing future disasters. The center will also be used as a naval for distributing and coordinating disaster risk management programmes aimed for people affected with natural disasters in the region.
In her remarks, Acting Senior Chief Mlolo said for a long time, communities in flood prone areas have been having challenges in accessing shelter when floods wreak havoc, hailing this initiative as remarkable and well-thought.
In the meantime, the center has been earmarked for use (as classroom and administration blocks) by Makhanga Community Day Secondary School following ongoing relocation exercise of over 5,000 households from the flood-prone Makhanga area to upper and safer places in TA Mlolo.
Constructed with funding from the African Development Bank under the Post Cyclone Idai Emergency Recovery and Resilience Project (PCIREP), the center will ease pressure on education facilities as most displaced communities in the surrounding areas seek refuge in educational facilities (mostly in primary schools) during emergencies.
Among others, PCIREP aims at restoring and improving sustainable livelihoods, enhance disaster risk reduction and early warning preparedness, support inclusive socio-economic recovery empowerment and enhance post recovery adaptive capacity for people who were affected by Cyclone Idai.
