Committee visit exposes gaps in cholera fight

Parliamentary Committee on Health chairperson Matthews Ngwale has challenged government and stakeholders to ensure provision of potable water to all Malawians is to contain the cholera outbreak.

The Chiradzulu West legislator said this in Blantyre yesterday when the committee toured cholera treatment centres and affected communities in the Southern Region.

During the tour, some communities in Blantyre cited challenges in finding clean water as kiosks and taps are mostly dry.

Makhetha Clinic in Blantyre and Machinga District Hospital, which the committee visited had 36 and 34 patients admitted respectively.

A Makhetha Township, resident Elifa Kamenya, said despite having a tap in her compound, she uses water from unprotected sources because it is dry.

She said: “We only access tap water three or five times a month, even the nearby kiosks are always dry. We are forced to use unclean water sources because we don’t have an option.”

But Blantyre Water Board (BWB) spokesperson Evelyn Khonje said it was news to the board that Makhetha is facing intermittent water supply.

She said: “It is not true that Makhetha has been running without BWB water for a long time.  Our team was with the committee and there was water even in the kiosks.”

“If there is an interruption it must be a temporary fault which is usually attended to immediately.”

Ngwale described the intermittent water supply situation as pathetic, saying government should not leave the whole responsibility to water boards but invest in projects to ensure communities have potable water all year.

He said: “As a nation, we have been neglecting this problem. We haven’t invested much in providing our people with clean water and they are being forced to draw water from wells that are close to toilets because they have no option.”

During the visit, it was also noted that in some parts of the city, there is unattended to spillage of sewage and waste.

Blantyre City Council director of health and social services Dr. Emmanuel Kanjunjunju, who accompanied the committee, said the council is having challenges as it has a backlog of garbage that it failed to collect in the past months due to fuel shortage.

He said: “We have cleaners in our markets but they are being overwhelmed as our markets are too congested.

“We are also working on constructing more toilets and privatising them for proper management.”

In an interview yesterday, Ministry of Health director of preventive health services, Dr. Storn Kabuluzi called on all stakeholders to support the ministry in fighting the outbreak 

As of Tuesday, the country had reported 447 new cases and 15 deaths, bringing the total number of cases and deaths to 22 010 and 731 respectively.