Malawi - Floods
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Regional Team: SWAN
Disaster Declared: 01/10/2006
Brief Description: Heavy rainfall in late December 2005 and early January 2006 caused widespread flooding in the Lower Shire districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje, Malawi. Flooding from the Shire, Mwanza, and Ruo rivers washed away bridges and roads and destroyed houses. According to assessments conducted by the Government of Malawi, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), and GOAL, the floods damaged nearly 10,000 hectares of crops, affecting more than 35,500 households. WFP reported that 80 percent of the flood-affected households were already suffering from ongoing food insecurity resulting from poor crop production and rising grain prices during the 2004/2005 agricultural season.
On January 10, 2006, U.S. Ambassador Alan W. Eastham declared a disaster due to the impact of flooding in the Lower Shire River basin. In response, OFDA provided $50,000 through USAID/Malawi to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the procurement and distribution of water purification tablets.
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