A Chance to Rebuild
In Makwalo village, nestled in the southern district of Nsanje in Malawi — one of the poorest countries in the world, where over half of the population lives in poverty — most people farm, fish, or work as casual laborers. Although lacking in social services, villagers here were traditionally self-reliant, tapping into a robust communal spirit that helped fill the gaps in formal services. People had enough to feed their families and save assets in the form of bags of grain and livestock, according to 38-year-old Meke Nkhandwe, the village chief. Nearly a decade ago, the southeastern African nation began to see significant climate changes. These included erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and strong winds, all of which have proven challenging for the agricultural nation and its delicate topsoil. In 2015, flooding also shifted the course of the Ruo River, which runs through Nsanje, by a few hundred meters. This rendered the Ruo Bridge, a Malawian government-supported project, defunct; villagers had to rely on canoes for transport. Still, locals could cope. Thirty-six-year-old Elizabeth Fred, a mother of five from Makwalo, said that even when the Ruo moved, she and her husband tried to view things through a positive lens. For a few years, they saw better harvests on their one-acre plot since inundation from the flooding brought in a wave of extra nutrients from soil washed out upstream. Although their usual fishing dock areas were rapidly silted out and became devoid of catches, the Ruo saw a deluge of schools of small fish, which locals call njole. They enjoyed roasting or frying njole to supplement their diets. Things changed in 2019, when heavy rains marked the beginning of larger problems for Nsanje residents, many of whom rely on farming and fishing for their livelihoods. “Flooding brought sand, which ruined our plots,” says Fred. Kang-Chun Cheng reports on the heavy toll of climate disruption in Malawi, and a first-of-its-kind program that is giving climate-displaced people there direct funding to rebuild.
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