Minimizing Disasters Through Land Preservation.

When Tropical Cyclone hit Malawi in March 2023 resulting in floods and landslides in several districts, Phalombe district was one of the most affected districts.

Several infrastructures including roads were destroyed, while some families lost their loved ones.

Nine-year-old Amina  from Kasongo village in Phalombe, a learner at a local Primary School, was among thousands of children whose lives were disturbed in several aspects. Her family’s two houses were swept, roads damaged, rivers and roads flooded with water. Most of the water and landslides descended from a nearby Mikongoni Mountain.

 “At some point we were told not to go to school. Even if I wanted to go, I could not manage because a small river that I cross when going to school was flooded. Our home was also affected,” she said.

Her father, 61-year-old John Maliko who has a family of five children, agreed to his daughter’s story, adding that they now live in a one-bedroom house that used to shelter his sons.

“When the floods hit, most children in the village were affected in several ways. My children would miss school sometimes due to flooded roads and damaged school items including notebooks,” Maliko said.

However, he was quick to commend several initiatives brought to the village by World Vision Malawi such as the construction of stone bands, deep trenches and check dams in the nearby mountain under the land resource programme which falls under the Recovery project.

The mountain acted as a source of floods that ravaged their village, but he said they have already seen the impact of the project during the just ending 2023-24 rainy season.

Chairperson of the 334-member group that is working on the projects under Senior Traditional Authority Kasongo, Frank Moffat said they have been working on the projects since December 2023.

Each member received K45,000 per month for six months, but the projects they are working on has left a long-lasting positive impact in the villages.

He said they were trained on developing stone bands and deep trenches that reduce the water speed to minimize chances of flooding homes that lie at the foot of the mountains.

“Cyclone Freddy affected lives of hundreds of families in our villages. Houses were destroyed and we lost many people while crops were swept away. We are relieved now believing that the stone bands and the trenches that we have constructed have the capacity protect us from the running water disasters. Our lives are now protected, our children will be able to continue with education without such a threat. We managed to grow banana’s and we are optimistic that even if cyclone hits again, we will not lose everything including our bananas,” he said.

Every member of the group also received banana suckers and potato vines to improve their nutrition and economic life.