Sixty-five-year-old Chakuamba Muliri, his wife Christina, 58, and their nine children fled their village in Mozambique’s central Zambezia Province after Tropical Storm Ana destroyed their home and livelihood. Nsanje is also host to families who fled across Malawi’s southern border in the wake of the storm from neighbouring Mozambique. Mor More than three months after the storm, displaced people are still living in 141 evacuation camps in Malawi, 21 of which are in Nsanje district, one of the worst-affected areas. In Malawi, more than 190,000 people lost or fled their homes while close to a million were affected by the destruction of property and crops caused during the storm. See also: Displaced on the frontlines of the climate emergency.While seasonal rains are an annual occurrence, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of cyclones and tropical storms in the region, wreaking havoc on the lives of people most vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather. In Malawi, at least 46 people were killed, with 18 still missing and more than 200 injured. Tropical Storm Ana devastated swathes of Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi between 20 and 25 January, causing large scale displacement, flooding, and damage to public and private infrastructure. “I lost all the few belongings I had put together during the years, including my chickens and goats,” Waiti says. The family and the other villagers then began the 5-kilometer-walk to Marka primary school where they found shelter. Edesi was carried to higher ground as her grandchildren headed for cover. In the space of a few minutes, Waiti and her grandchildren lost everything. We were not even able to take any of our belongings before the house was washed away.” “I do not know who pushed the door in,” she says, “but we were woken up and told to get out. When the storm hit, the heavy downpour and fierce winds sent torrents of water rushing between the thatched huts of the village before, suddenly, the river burst its banks. “After supper, we went to bed as usual,” Waiti says. Waiti and her family were unaware that the storm had made landfall, and that their village on the muddy banks of the Shire River lay directly in its path. Three days earlier, Malawi’s Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services had begun issuing daily weather warnings on national radio of the fast-approaching Tropical Storm Ana. It was 25 January 2022, and a powerful storm was heading their way.Īs well as having poor eyesight and difficulty walking, Waiti is hard of hearing and paid little attention to the radio playing in the background of their home in Madani village, in Malawi’s southern district of Nsanje. Waiti set about preparing supper for the household. Sixteen-year-old Rafayelo, the eldest, had bought a packet of beans with the money he earned selling mangos that morning. It had been a typical day for 70-year-old Edesi Waiti and her four grandchildren. Edesi Waiti, 70, cooks cassava outside Marka Primary School in Malawi's Nsanje district, where she and her grandchildren sought shelter after Tropical Storm Ana destroyed her house.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |