Persistent rains that have been falling in Nkhotakota during the past week have flooded most parts of the district leaving over 3000 people homeless.

According to assessment documents made available to Malawi News Agency, over 527 houses have so far collapsed in some parts of the areas the disaster evaluation team has appraised.

District Commissioner for Nkhotakota Felix Mkandawire confirmed the development on Sunday saying that the assessment was still in progress.

He admitted that the impact is huge with more crop fields washed away or submerged in water almost in all Traditional Authorities.

“So far expect the data of affected households to rise after assessment and as I speak more houses are collapsing since the rain is still falling,” he said.

District Agriculture Development Officer (DADO) Abraham Mhlanga said the floods have negatively impacted his department since more hectares of crops have been affected.

Mhlanga observed that as of Sunday morning the data available indicated that 160 hectares of crops against about 1500 farmers were either washed away or immersed in water in Dwambazi, Bondo, Mazengera and Chibalepamaso areas.

He mentioned that the district expects to have shutter loses of about 25 to 40 percent of what they expected to harvest during this period.

Meanwhile DoDMA has provided the district with 627 bags of maize and some relief items to communities that were affected by floods in December last year.

Some of the affected households have camped at Dwambazi and Mkaika Primary Schools.