Malawi’s environmental authorities have highlighted a critical challenge facing local councils in the country, such as the lack of capacity to effectively respond to disasters.
The capacity gap hinders councils’ ability to provide timely and adequate support to communities affected by disasters, exacerbating the impact of these events.
This was revealed by Environment and Climate Change Specialist for Transforming Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Programme (TRADE), Amosi Simwela at the end of a three-day District Disaster Risk Management Committees (DDRM) capacity-building workshop for Nkhata-Bay and Karonga districts in Mzuzu.
Simwela concedes that TRADE programme recognizes the importance of the DDRMs in planning and managing disasters hence their commitment to ensuring that in the districts that are prone to disasters, the committees are functional and incapacitated.
‘We deal with smallholder farmers who are mostly affected by the effects of climate change including disasters such as floods and droughts. However, we observed that councils cannot deal with these. As such orienting these committees we are assured that even our farmers at the local level will be empowered,’ said Simwela.
He further highlighted that the committees have been reminded of their roles, approaches in disaster management, mitigation measures, and how they can build resilience giving hope that if properly followed disasters can be easily responded to.
In her remarks, the Disaster Risk Management Officer for Nkhata-Bay district, Rachael Kamanga hailed TRADE for the workshop as skills gained will assist them in handling disasters.
Source: Nkhata Bay District Council Media Team
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