On Floods

January 2007
Government should continue supporting its people

By Hastings Maloya

The rains are here once again. We should be a happy nation, as we cannot overemphasise the importance of the rains to Malawi whose economy is mainly agro-based. However, as it has always been the case over the years, problems associated with them, especially floods overshadow the importance of these rains.

As it continues to rain, certainly our worry and fear are the floods that may follow especially in the low lying geographical areas like in the Shire Valley area, Ntcheu and some parts of the central region, parts of the lakeshore districts and some low areas of the northern region. Each time we have excess incessant rains as we are experiencing now; there has been a result of suffering among Malawians who become victims of the effects of floods. This leads to loss of household property, crops and animals while to a serious effect, over the years there has been loss of lives. In the process we have also lost infrastructure like bridges, schools and hospitals.

Floods are natural disasters and to a certain extent very difficult to predict and control. If we are to go with the warnings and prediction from experts at our meteorological department, we still have days ahead of us with continuous rains and we cannot rule out the possibility of worse effects than last year. It is only worrisome and painful that mostly the affected people are the same year in and year out. Surely as of now our colleagues in the affected areas are not too sure what will come of them in the next few days.

Nevertheless, much as natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable, floods and flooding is slowly becoming part of us and surely as a nation we need to start and effect planning to contain such situations. I find it unfortunate that very little is done to avert flooding and indeed very little is done to assist people who are slowly becoming perennial sufferers of the effects of floods.

It is even more worrying when some quarters of the society call on the affected people to move to higher grounds – whatever that means. Some things are easier said than done especially when it is not the one saying who is supposed to implement the suggested action.

It should be accepted that naturally all of us have villages and homes where we come from and very few of us made choices to be born where we were born. We have, over the years, lived in the available geographical landscapes as is provided and it will not be very easy to be told to move just like that. More so, there has never been any provision of infrastructure or amenities in areas where suggestions are made for people to move to. One wonders what is expected of the people to do once they move to the so-called higher areas.

It has been urged in some quarters that because people are not moving to higher grounds, they should not be assisted or given hand outs because this creates a dependence syndrome and that people remain in low areas because they know they will be assisted. Sadly these arguments are coming in at a time the people have not been physically assisted especially in the preparation of their next settlement places.

First of let us think of why people settle where they are. It could be farming coming with fertile soils, availability of drinking water, availability of social amenities and infrastructures that leads to accessibility and communication. We have also noted that initiatives for development whether by government or non-governmental organisations have taken place around where people live. Why then should people be advised to move to higher grounds where there is almost nothing to sustain them? By the way, do we have enough land in the proposed areas? Issues of land are sensitive, no need to overemphasise this.

It must be noted and agreed that in the situation that we are in now, there has not been any provision from the government in proposed areas for relocation, and therefore the government should give continuous support to the affected. Actually there is need to budget for these kind of expected calamities. Hopefully as parliament meets in a couple of weeks, this issue will be tabled and enough allocations set aside to assist the people that might be affected by the anticipated floods. The government should never give up in taking care of its own people.

Issues about floods are purely environmental problems and one would want to know how committed is the Malawi government in efforts to tackle environmental problems and their effects. Are the people educated on natural resource conservation and the dangers associated with environmental degradation? For example, both the national state of environment report (SOER) and the national environmental action plan (NEAP) only mentions about environmental education in Chapter 9 but mentions nothing of actions that needs to be taken if people are to do away with problems that come due to environmental degradation. Again there is no mention to the effect that environmental education is one of the integral components of natural resource and environmental management.

This also tells us that most of the infrastructures that we see are developed without any environmental impact assessments otherwise the structures could not have been erected where they are today. The structures could not have been attracting people to be where they are today.

There is need for the government to increase basic knowledge and understanding of the environment and its inter-relationship with human and raise awareness of the environment and its problems while identifying social values and attitudes which are in harmony with environmental quality and develop skills to solves environmental problems. It is wrong for the government or government officers who are transmitters of knowledge to turn the learners or the villagers into mere receivers of the transmitted knowledge without involving them to make an informed decision.

To solve this perennial problem, we need a multisectral approach in experimental learning where the government as a facilitator shall enable its people to draw on their own experiences and create new knowledge. The people shall therefore be active constructors of knowledge through experience.

It should always be appreciated that it is very difficult to change peoples’ mentality more especially when benefits cannot be seen immediately with the proposed change. One must also appreciate issues of poverty and livelihoods and that people are not deliberately where they are but rather they are trying to survive in the short term.
The problems we are facing now can not be sorted out by the affected people. This is the responsibility of the government and should be a long-term initiative that the government needs to engage on. People should not be told to move just for the sake of it when there are no facilities to sustain their livelihood.

Ends!......04.01.07