By Kondanani Chilimunthaka

President Lazarus Chakwera has described natural disasters as a pain on Malawi.

The Southern region has thousands of people whose livelihood or work have been destroyed by floods triggered by cyclones which kept hitting in circles while in the Northern Region, thousands of households are currently being provided with social protection due to drought that destroyed their livelihood and work.

Speaking at Masintha ground in Lilongwe during this year’s commemoration of International Labour Day on Monday, 1st May, 2023, Chakwera said alot of Malawians are in pain that has come about due to natural disasters.

“In economic terms, Cyclone Freddy alone has sunk more workers into unemployment and poverty, increased their food insecurity and malnutrition, and reduced their access to health, education, utility, transport, and sanitation services. And in monetary terms, our experts now estimate that the damage and losses caused by Cyclone Freddy alone exceed $500 million, and that despite the 1.6 billion Kwacha that I ordered the treasury to release for emergency relief and despite all the additional support we have received from Malawians, neighboring countries, and development partners for Operation Tigwirane Manja we still have a shortfall of K107.3 million to address humanitarian needs that effected population are expected to face until the middle of June,” said the president.

Further, President Chakwera told the nation that the country is under natural attack.

He said the country needs for 700 billion Kwacha for recovery and reconstruction.

Added the President; “We are under such heavy attack that we need reinforcements from other nations in order to not mobilize the 107.3 million Kwacha needed to respond to the humanitarian crisis at hand and K700 billion needed to adequately recover and reconstruct what has been lost but we also need the support of other nations to better prepare and mitigate against the next disaster before it comes.

This is why the State of National Disaster that I declared on March 13th to call for international support remains in force and why I will personally use a few upcoming international gatherings of the world leaders to directly engage them with specific proposals on how they can support us with the daunting task we have going forward.”

Chakwera has since directed Minister of Labour to review the national job creation strategy that was launched in March last year to strengthen it to reflect the realities of the post disaster period that the country has found itself in.

In her remarks, Minister of Labour, Agnes Nyalonje thanked President Chakwera for creating a conducive working environment for workers in the country.

She added that his attendance to the function reaffirmed his commitment towards ensuring favourable working environment for all workers across the country.

This year’s commemoration has been held under the theme “Natural Disasters a Threat to Livelihoods and Decent Work: Creating Decent Jobs and Extending Social Protection is Key to Sustainable Recovery.”