Vice President Saulos Chilima has pledged government\u2019s support to people in Karonga who have been affected by floods due to incessant rains since Friday.<\/p>\n
Chilima made the commitment Wednesday in Karonga when he visited flood victims at various camps.<\/p>\n
Close to 6,000 people are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases due to poor sanitation resulting from floods that have affected traditional authorities Kilupula, Kyungu, Mwirang\u2019ombe and Wasambo.<\/p>\n
Currently four people have been confirmed dead while three others are missing and 878 houses have been destroyed completely.<\/p>\n
Karonga District Commissioner Richard Hara informed Chilima that the situation in the six camps that have been established in the district is disheartening.<\/p>\n
\u201cToilets have collapsed and wells from which people draw water have been destroyed. People are currently drinking unprotected water,\u201d Hara said.<\/p>\n
A report by the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) which was presented to Chilima warned that the affected people are at risk of malnutrition, contracting cholera and other waterborne diseases as well as malaria, tuberculosis and other respiratory infections.<\/p>\n
Chilima\u2014who is minister responsible for Dodma\u2014said the government would distribute chlorine besides other interventions to prevent the outbreak of diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m aware that those affected are at risk and I\u2019m also aware that no immediate measures have been put in place to control the situation. However, the President is with you and he will take care of you,\u201d Chilima said.<\/p>\n
Chilima, however, explained that trucks carrying food supplies could not get to Karonga due to a cut on the M1 Road at Jalawe Bridge on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Roads Authority has assured us they will maintain the bridge by 1 o\u2019clock. Food and other materials will still come to help the affected families,\u201d Chilima said.<\/p>\n
Approximately 1,075 hectares of rice, maize and cassava have been washed away.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Chilima has warned government officials and others against stealing relief items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vice President Saulos Chilima has pledged government\u2019s support to people in Karonga who have been affected by floods due to incessant rains since Friday. Chilima made the commitment Wednesday in Karonga when he visited flood victims at various camps. Close to 6,000 people are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases due to poor sanitation resulting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43959,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43953\/revisions\/43959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}