Malawian residents and analysts on Saturday welcomed a cluster of China-funded projects aimed at helping their disaster-prone areas build resilience and reduce the effects of disasters.

China on Friday handed over the projects to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in a disaster-prone area of central Malawi's Salima district, about 93 km from the capital Lilongwe.

The handover ceremony was attended by UNDP Resident Coordinator Maria Jose Torres, Chinese Ambassador to Malawi Wang Shiting, and Clement Chintu Phiri, secretary to Malawi's vice president and commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs.

Launched in June 2016, the Disaster Risk Reduction Small Grants Scheme was supporting poor and vulnerable communities in 15 identified disaster-prone districts and were trilateral pilot projects being undertaken by the Malawian government, with the technical and financial support of the Chinese government and the UNDP.

Among the projects are four evacuation centers, a dike and two check dams meant to hold water.

Group Village Headman Matuwi, community leader in eastern Malawi's Mangochi district where an evacuation center has been constructed, was elated over the development.

"We are very happy for all the work you have done for us and we welcome this development because it will go a long way in helping us during floods," he said, adding that tackling disasters was expensive and unsustainable without the support of the cooperating partners.

He especially singled out the construction of evacuation centers and said this will stop the tendency of taking people to facilities such as schools when there is no disaster and that the facilities will also be used for other purposes.

He commended the support the Malawian government has continued to receive from China, saying this has contributed to raising people's living standards.

"We decided to have this project because of the challenge of water we were facing during floods. The water used to enter people's houses and so we used to be displaced," said Harrison Katema, chairperson of the Community Based Organization (CBO) in the Monkey Bay area in Mangochi district.

He thanked China and the UNDP for the projects, saying they will go a long way in building resilience in communities against disasters.

Senior Chief Amos Siyabu said the construction of the dams will have multiple positive effects as the dams will also be used for fish farming ventures as well as irrigation purposes during dry seasons.

"We would like to thank China and the UNDP for hearing our cry and we wish they could provide us with more help because we have so many challenges here," he said.

"China has a long history of dealing with disasters as well as the experience and technology, so we need to learn from each other," said Fang Weihua, a professor at the Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management of Beijing Normal University.

For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Malawi Wang thanked all the partners involved in the projects and promised to continue working with authorities in coming up with projects to benefit the local people.

He said China's collaboration with the UNDP during the projects has been successful, and that the disaster risk reduction projects will help the communities build resilience and reduce the effects of disasters.

China, he said, has always been ready to support Malawi in times of need.

Meanwhile, the UNDP representative said the projects demonstrate the successful partnership between the Chinese and Malawian governments.

Torres also said the projects were pilot projects, and would serve as examples for other countries.

She said many parts of Malawi are prone to disasters, which affect 300-500 people each year and that the projects will support about 23,000 people.

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