Malawi Flood Review summary Dumisani Siwinda, 2012
1.0 MALAWI FLOOD REVIEW
Malawi has been divided into three main political and administrative regions, these are; Northern
region, Central region and the Southern region. In total, all the regions have twenty-eight
districts. The country has dierent water bodies which include la!es, rivers, mashes and some
minor streams. The la!es include; "a!e Malawi, "a!e Chilwa, "a!e Malombe, "a!e Chiuta and
"a!e #a$uni. "a!e Malawi, the largest o all is even the third largest "a!e in %rica while "a!e
Chilwa is an inland drainage "a!e. The main rivers include Shire, "inthipe, &uo, 'ua, (omasi,
South &u!uru and North &u!uru among others.
Malawi has been ound to be a single hydrologic unit or catchment area in that all the rain waters
that ell has a single outlet which Shire river, which also happens to be the largest river in
Malawi, to )ambe$i in Mo$ambi*ue and inally to Indian +cean.
1.1 Occurrence of Flood
+ver the past ourty years the country has been aected by loods due to overlowing o the
water bodies as a result o heavy rains in dierent parts o the country. % lot o damage has been
caused and a lot o people aected. Such damage includes loss o lie and property.
1.1.0 Occurrence of foods per District
,loods have ever occurred in almost all the districts o the country and a good number o years
on national level. ,or instance during the past ourty years, it is on Ntchisi district that has never
reported any cases o loods.
The table and graph below show the occurrence o loods since -./0 up to 10-0.
Table 1: Frequency of floods per district between 1970 to 2010
District Frequency District Frequency District Frequency District Frequency
'ala!a 2 #aronga -3 Mulan4e 2 Ntcheu /
'lantyre 2 #asungu - Mwan$a 5 Ntchisi 0
Chi!wawa -1 "i!oma 1 M$imba 5 6halombe /
Chitipa 1 "ilongwe 1 Neno - &umphi 7
Chrad$ulu - Machinga -- N!hatabay 2 Salima -1
(ed$a 8 Mangochi 7 N!ota!ota 8 Thyolo -
(owa 1 Mchin4i 3 Nsan4e -- )omba -5
Malawi Flood Review summary Dumisani Siwinda, 2012
Fig1: Graph of flood frequency per forty years period against District
Since the year -./0 up to date, each district 9e:cept Ntchisi; has ever reported a lood occurrence
atleast once over the period. Notable districts o re*uency atleast ten are )omba, Chi!wawa,
Nsan4e, #aronga, Machinga and Salima. <hile Chirad$ulu, #asungu, Neno and Thyolo have
only reported a single occurrence o loods each.
1.1.1 Occurrence of floods per year
(espite the act that almost each district has ever reported a case o lood since -./0, the loods
have not been occurring annually. There are some years with no single occurrence o loods in
the country and also some years with several occurrences o loods in dierent parts o the
country.
The table and graph below show the occurrence o loods per year in the country between a
period o -./0 to 10-0.
Table 2: u!ber of occurrences of floods per year
Malawi Flood Review summary Dumisani Siwinda, 2012
=ear
Number o
occurrences
=ear
Number o
occurrences
=ear
Number o
occurrences
=ear
Number o
occurrences
-./0 3 -.7- 1 -..- - 100- -2
-./- 0 -.71 8 -..1 0 1001 --
-./1 0 -.73 - -..3 0 1003 -2
-./3 1 -.75 - -..5 0 1005 /
-./5 0 -.72 3 -..2 1 1002 5
-./2 2 -.78 2 -..8 / 1008 --
-./8 0 -.7/ 0 -../ 7 100/ -3
-.// 0 -.77 0 -..7 2 1007 -0
-./7 0 -.7. 0 -... 7 100. 0
-./. - -..0 0 1000 3 10-0 2
-.70 5
Fig 2: Graph of flood occurrences against years
It has been observed that or the past seventeen years, rom the year -..2, loods have been
occurring annually 9e:cept 100.; and with an increased occurrence or re*uency at National
level. ,or instance, in the years 100- to 1003 and 1008 to 1007 the nation reported atleast ten
occurrences o loods each year. <hile the irst twenty ive years rom -./0, it>s only -./2, -.71
and -.78 that recorded more than our occurrences o loods.
1.1.2 Occurrence of floods and households directly affected
%s stated earlier, a lot o damage and loss o property has been caused due to such loods. The
table and graph below shows number o households that have been aected by loods in selected
district with occurrence o more than ten or the past ourty years. These districts are Chi!wawa,
Malawi Flood Review summary Dumisani Siwinda, 2012
Machinga, Nsan4e, #aronga, Salima and )omba. The damage reported or number o households
reported is between the years -..8 to 10-0.
Fig ": #ap of #alawi showing si$ districts with the highest flood occurrences since 1970
Malawi Flood Review summary Dumisani Siwinda, 2012
Table %: u!ber of households affected per year in the selected districts
District
YEAR
-..8 -../ -..7 -... 1000 100- 1001 1003 1005 1002 1008 100/ 1007 10-0
Chi!wawa -- 30000 510 -.170 -../ -180 105./ .-/ 3213
#aronga 5-/5 7252 -11-8 -3115 87.3 523.8 2233 /5 83 .58
Machinga 700 -/ 320 -1000 -22 3. /23 371 /0
Nsan4e 205 /0000 -770. 112. 12000 /00 3- -357 72-1 -32- //.85
Salima 2118 -110 .000 -72 3000 332 5- 12.. 8
)omba 115 132. 37 -135 -3000 2553 3121 1-0 818 3/2 .5
Fig %: Graph of &ouseholds affected against years per district
Since -..8 up to 10-0, about 552000 households which translates to about 3.3 million people
have ever been aected by loods in the country. +n national level, including all districts, it is
estimated that over 3 million people again were aected by loods between the years 100- to
1003 alone. These eects include; loss o lie, damage o houses which resulted to people being
displaced and loss o arm crops among others.
'etween the year -..8 to 10-0, it is observed that Nsan4e which is the lowest altitude district and
located in the southern tip o Malawi containing the sole outlet o Malawi hydrologic system,
Shire river, reported the highest annual victims o loods per district. This is more especially in
the years o -../, -..., 100- and 10-0. This is seconded by the la!eshore district o #aronga in
100- and Chi!wawa, another lower altitude district, in 1000 ? 1008 respectively. <hile )omba
9that contains inland drainage la!e, Chilwa; though having the highest re*uency o loods over
the years, has less number o victims. This is the same with the la!eshore district o Salima and
Machinga that contains "a!e Malombe.
