Persons with disabilities risk being left behind as disasters triggered by climate change become more frequent and devastating.

Thomson Chikopa, an octogenarian with hearing difficulties, needed a persistent push from his six-year-old grandson to escape the wrath of Cyclone Ana last week.

Chikopa and his grandson return to the rubble of their home

The flood caused by stormy torrents ripped his home and surrounding houses in Josamu Village, Traditional Authority Maseya in Chikwawa.

He recalls: “It rained relentlessly for two days and I sat on the veranda all night because I didn’t want to be caught unawares by rising water.

“However, the flood arrived around midnight when I had dozed off. Had my grandson not shaken me up, I would have been dead. By then, my neighbours had already fled.”

Chikopa is among over 11 000 people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Chikwawa, the worst hit district.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) reports that Cyclone Ana has affected about 846 000 people from 188 000 households in 17 districts. Some 42 000 families have been displaced.

Some displaced families in Chikopa’s Village fled to a local church where delivery of relief items has been slowed by damaged roads.

The man did not hear the roaring flood and desperate cries of his neighbours scampering to higher grounds.

Speaking from the rubble of what was his home for over a decade, he called for better strategies to save vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with disability.

“Lately, storms and floods have become more frequent and destructive. My area has experienced three devastating floods since 2015, but none had such impact on my homestead. Clearly, we need help so that we are not left behind when disasters strike,” he says.

Jimmy Chapenda, whose left leg and hand were paralysed after a severe cerebral malaria attack, was equally “forgotten” by his neighbours.

The 45-year-old has partly recovered his mobility after undergoing physiotherapy at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, but cannot run.

With no wife and child, he lived alone in a hut shattered by the rising flood that swept him to a wetland, where locals claimed to have seen corpses floating.

He narrated: “It was a night of horror. I heard my cries for help as the roaring water flooded homes, but I couldn’t escape as fast as my neighbours.

“In no time, a floating tree hit me to the ground and surging water swept me downstream, where I held on to a tree for almost 12 hours before rescuers arrived.”

Chapenda is among 58 displaced people at the camp in Jossam Village, where some locals claimed to have shoved a body back into Mwanza River to avoid lengthy police interrogations instead of rebuilding their homes and livelihoods.

“When we see bodies of unknown people, we either let them go with the water or bury them on the riverbank so that they don’t stink,” said one.

Commissioner of Dodma Charles Kalemba encountered such tales in Chikwawa and Nsanje in the Shire Valley, but said they were merely fabrications.

“When I asked the narrators to show me where one body has been buried, they couldn’t. Besides, police records show that nobody has been reported missing in the area,” he explained.

From his tour of ruined villages, Kalemba reckons that “the impact of the disaster is far greater than we reported”.

On Sunday, Dodma reported that Cyclone Ana had killed 32 people and injured 147, with 19 people reported missing in Chikwawa and one in Mwanza.

“Every village or area has a trained civil protection committee, which has to put the safety ofvulnerable people first. But when a disaster occur, people tend to think about their safety before anyone else,” he said.

Chikwawa district commissioner Ali Phiri said the damage could be greater and some deaths remain unconfirmed.

“Where no one has been reported missing, the bodies said to have been seen in some areas could be from the neighbouring Mozambique, which has also been hit hard,” he said.

Phiri warned against clandestine burials that could distort the recorded impact of the disaster.

Similar fears engulf Josamu and surrounding villages near Bereu, where Fanny Mtonthola, 56, died in muddy floods after taking her blind husband to safety.

“Fanny was everything to me: A friend, breadwinner, helper and hero. She was always there for me for 30 years. She really appreciated that people like me need special help in difficult times,” said Kaitano Sadya, 89, after burying his wife in a waterlogged graveyard.

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