By Emmanuel Moyo
In a bid to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events that are likely to happen as forecasted by the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological services, the Department of Disaster Risk Management in Karonga District has embarked on doing preparedness activities.
The District’s Relief and Rehabilitation Officer, Shepherd Jere disclosed this in an interview saying his department has done and is still doing disaster risk management preparedness activities.
“We are disseminating sensitization messages to those that are on lower areas to relocate to upper lands, we also want to strengthen the early warning systems so that people are able to know what disasters can affect them.
“With the coming of the seasonal weather focus we will be able now to plan for more sensitisation meetings before rains start so that we give that particular information to the communities that are affected by flooding to take prior measures in reducing the impact that floods might cause.” Jere said.
In a related development, Karonga District Department of Forestry recently embarked on restoring 600 hectares of degraded land by planting 1.5 million tree seedlings to address climate change shocks such as floods and strong winds.
The department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services on Thursday forecasted that normal to above rainfall amounts are expected over most areas across the country from January to March 2022, with some pockets of normal to below normal total rainfall in northern areas.
“Extreme weather events such as heavy rains leading to floods are likely to occur in prone areas while some parts of the country may experience pockets of prolonged dry spells during the season.” Jolam Nkhokwe, the Director of Climate Change and Meteorological Services said.
Karonga District is one of the flood prone areas in Malawi with the district experiencing floods often times.
