In early 2024 parts of Malawi were devastated by severe flooding. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and livelihoods wiped out. Malawi is no stranger to disasters. People often do not have the time to recover from one disaster before another strikes.
ShelterBox is responding in Malawi, supporting people who lost their homes to the flooding. For this response we are using aid already in the country after Cyclone Freddy in 2023.
When we were in Malawi assessing the needs of people impacted by the floods, we met Andrew. He shared with us how his livelihood had been impacted by the flooding.
“We saw a huge amount of water from the river”
Andrew is a mechanic who had his own garage in Malawi. On the day of the flooding he was able to escape to higher ground. Many other people did the same thing.
“At around 8am we saw a huge amount of water from the river. Then we managed to escape, the people here managed to escape and go the higher places.” he said.
It wasn’t until four days later that the water finally receded enough to assess the damage. The flood had destroyed houses, businesses and a church.
“I have lost everything“
When Andrew was able to return to his business, he found devastation. His garage had been submerged in the floods and the walls washed away. Andrew was faced with the prospect of starting over again.
He told our team, “I built it (my business) in 2018, in just five years, I have lost everything. As I am speaking now, I don’t have anything that I have invested, I am starting again. Which is a big problem to me, I’m growing but my investment has gone. It’s not only me, but a lot of people are also the same.
“For me, I had 11 guys, who I was paying every month, I was supporting the government with job opportunities. But as of now I have lost them, they are here, but cannot work because my garage has gone. What we need is help, to make sure this problem does not happen again.”
“This isn’t the first time…”
Like many people in Malawi, Andrew has seen repeated disasters. When talking about the recent flooding, he referred to previous floods in the same place in 2019.
“We didn’t see the damage at first, we could only see water. Like what happened in 2019, because this isn’t the first time, it happened in 2019 when the water came from this river, but it was not as huge as this year, this is the biggest I’ve ever seen,” he said.
It’s not surprising Andrew said yes when he was asked if he was worried flooding could happen again.
“Yes, you can see the river there, it has now come higher, due to some sand that had come from the higher lever. Which means even a small amount of water, will wash over here. Because originally the river was very deep, so now because of sand, even just some small rain will affect people.”
