Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Kae Yanagisawa has advised government to put more effort on resilience programmes which will help to mitigate risks that make most communities homeless each year when floods occur.
Yanagisawa made the sentiments in Nsanje on the sidelines of inspection tour of the early recovery projects which World Food Program WFP is implementing in the district.
“Malawi can do better in protecting its citizens from different disasters including flooding if the country focuses on resilience activities instead of concentrating on response programmes which do not protect flood-affected households in disasters prone areas,” Yanagisawa said
During the tour, Yanagisawa officially opened a rehabilitated 2.8 Km road which connects people from traditional authority Malemia and Chimombo.
Yanagisawa also distributed food rations to 100 households in Group Village Head Ngabu under Traditional Authority Ngabu which WFP is currently supporting.
WFP Country Representative, Benoit Thiry concurred with Yanagisawa that “there is need to come up with a strategy and plans that would help in future planning to enhance resilience.”
A representative of Nsanje District Council, James Banda who is District Agricultural Development Officer for Nsanje, advised community members to utilise the resources gained from early recovery activities.
WFP is assisting 170, 000 households who were affected by floods in March early this year with cash and food items in eight districts across the country.
The Japanese Government supported the activities to the tune of 1.2 million dollars(roughly K8.76 billion).
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