Experts sound alarm on cholera
With just two months before the onset of rains, sanitation and hygiene situation has not improved in most towns and cities and environmental advocates and health experts have warned of another cholera outbreak.
Last year, Malawi recorded over 58 000 cholera cases with over 1 700 deaths in one of the deadliest outbreaks in the country’s history that affected all 28 districts.
Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo told Weekend Nation in an interview that there is evidence of littering or indiscriminate disposal of refuse and waste in some parts of cities and towns, a situation he said encourages breeding of flies that act as vectors for transmission of diseases, including diarrhea diseases such as cholera.
Mndolo stressed on the need for all city residents to adhere to sanitation and hygiene standards through proper disposal of refuse and waste.
In a separate interview, Water and Environmental Sanitation Network (Wesnet) national coordinator Willies Mwandira pointed out that it is disappointing that the national clean-up campaign which was launched with pomp and hype in July 2020 by President Lazarus Chakwera has lost its momentum, saying the initiative needs to be re-ignited.
According to Mwandira, only Nkhata Bay district has developed a sanitation and hygiene investment plan to deal with issues of poor sanitation and hygiene.
He also observed that the country was affected economically during the cholera outbreak last year as some tourists shunned coming to Malawi, adding that such a scenario needs to be avoided by practising good hygiene, starting from household.
Said Mwandira: “Government also needs to find ways of cushioning people’s suffering in towns and cities, who are the largest population affected by water tariff hike, by improving income of civil servants, for instance.”
On his part, Malawi Equity Health Network executive director George Jobe urged government to increase cholera vaccinations, especially in hotspots.
Movement for Environmental Action interim president Mathews Malata, in an interview last Friday, said the clean-up campaign lost the momentum because the system failed to absorb and translate the vision to reality, saying there hasn’t been genuine interest from the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture as well as Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change.
But the ministry’s spokesperson Anjoya Mwanza insists that the campaign has not lost its momentum, arguing that when it was launched, only four city councils were active but now all the 35 councils have been mobilised.
She said: “What ought to be done is to ensure that the initiative is being done at neighbourhood level in both urban and rural areas. This is the catchment we need to work on in terms of sensitisation.”
Meanwhile, Lilongwe City Council (LCC) has developed a cholera elimination plan to be implemented prior and during the rainy season.
LCC spokesperson Tamara Chafunya, in a written response, said the plan, which will be done under World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative through Ministry of Health, will include massive waste management clean-up exercises, cholera awareness and sensitisation and chlorine distribution etc.
