On 30 January 2015, the Minister of Health, Dr Jean Kalilani and WHO Representative (WR) Dr Eugene Nyarko visited the worst flood affected districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje. Accompanying the Minister and the WR were the Secretary for Health and the Ministry of Health Directors. The purpose of the visit was to assess the health situation of displaced people living in the camps.
 
Speaking to the people at one of the camps, the Honourable Minister thanked the UN and all partners for providing food, shelter, safe water and sanitation facilities. “It is with pleasure to see that since the flood situation was declared a state of disaster in the affected districts the United Nations including our long term partner, WHO has been providing assistance to people not only in Chikwawa and Nsanje but in all the affected districts,” the Honourable Minister said.
 
In mid-January, the President of the Republic of Malawi declared a state of disaster in areas affected by the floods. This declaration activated the humanitarian cluster system as provided by the Disaster Preparedness and Relief Act of 1991. This created a legal and institutional framework for disaster risk management.
 
In particular, the WHO Country Office is providing technical assistance in strengthening disease surveillance in the flood affected districts. WHO is also providing essential medicines such as malaria drugs, antibiotics, drugs for skin infections, intravenous fluids and others to support the Ministry of Health in managing the public health consequences of the floods. This work is being implemented in collaboration with the District Health Offices, other UN Agencies and implementing partners.
 
During the visit, WHO Representative Dr Nyarko had a meeting with the District Health Office in Nsanje. The purpose of the meeting was to learn about the state of health services in the disaster situation and decide what support services are required.
 
Dr Chijuwa from the District Health Office (DHO) informed the WR that the assessment that was done showed that some services were disrupted in the health facilities and some health workers were also displaced by the disaster. “We are providing primary care services to the camps through mobile clinics that are conducted every two weeks. The composition of the mobile clinic team is one clinician, two nurses, one health surveillance assistant and one patient assistant. However this is not without challenges, especially in the east bank,” Dr Chijuwa said.
 
The eastern side of Chikwawa and Nsanje locally known as East Bank is where critical challenges remain because road network accessibility has been broken due to washed away bridges. Only one government health facility and one Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) hospital called Trinity Hospital is functioning.
 
WHO is working with other partners to mobilize additional resources to extend the mobile clinic outreach services to other camps; strengthen the disease surveillance and disease outbreak investigation system as well as improve the overall coordination of the health cluster response.