In the lush hills of Thyolo District, Thekerani Rural Hospital has become a symbol of hope for pregnant women from surrounding villages and beyond.
The plight of women giving birth in constrained conditions is poignantly captured by the experience of Umbisyie Wayenda, a 36-year-old mother of three.
Four years ago, she delivered her child in a dark maternity ward that lacked electricity and clean water when she needed them.
“It was one of the most frightening experiences of my life,” Wayenda recalls.
For her, the joy of holding her newborn was overshadowed by anxiety over water scarcity.
“Not knowing if there would be clean water for my care or for my baby’s needs weighed heavily on me. My guardian walked over 300 metres to fetch water from Thekerani River,” said Wayenda.
James Thuthuwa, the healthcare worker in charge of the facility, shared similar frustrations.
“We could not sterilise dirty equipment properly with water from the river or the borehole,” Thuthuwa states. “This compromised hygiene, increasing the risk of preventable infections for mothers and newborns as the maternity ward was at risk of becoming a breeding ground for diseases likely to affect patients, guardians and healthcare staff.”
Lack of reliable water supplies frequently forced health workers to choose between using unsterilised tools or delaying care to fetch water from distant sources.
For patients like 23-year-old Asiyileni Mandala, from Chimwala Village, this situation posed a grave threat.
“Many women were reluctant to seek medical care due to hygiene concerns. Some were giving birth at home even though a government policy requires every child to be born in a clinical setting with the help of skilled caregivers,” she said.
Mandala symphathises with hard working health workers who were frustrated by water, sanitation and hygiene concerns.
“The staff was dedicated, yet water woes severely frustrated their safe motherhood efforts,” she says.
Not any longer.
The problems have become history with the Surge-Water project by the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas) in partnership with Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
The life-changing initiative involves harvesting rainwater and treating it with solar disinfection technology.
Rainwater is collected in a 20 000-litre transparent tank exposed to sunlight, which allows ultraviolet rays to eliminate germs from the rainwater before it is treated and piped directly into the maternity ward.
This guarantees consistent water supply for essential medical procedures, ensuring no life is lost due to preventable infection while giving birth.
“Normally, rainwater is wasted,” says associate professor Cristabel Kambala, from Mubas. “The goal is to harness rain as an additional water source after treatment.”
The results of this initiative have been transformative.
Healthcare workers can now uphold hygiene standards, significantly reducing preventable infections.
According to the World Health Organisation, half a million babies die globally within their first month due to lack of safe water and sanitation in health facilities.
WaterAid reports that a quarter of healthcare centres surveyed in Malawi had no basic water supply. These facilities were three times more likely to report outbreaks of waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoea, than the haves.
Pregnant women in Thyolo express renewed confidence in the maternity services at the healthcare facility where they once felt hard done and repelled by unhygienic conditions.
The impact of the water harvesting facility goes beyond Thekerani, presenting a replicable model for rural healthcare facilities nationwide and beyond the borders.
As climate change worsens water stress, every raindrop counts.
For Wayenda, rain harvesting is not just valuing water. It is a matter of life or death.
“We come to the health centre to receive treatment and save life, not to get preventable infections. Simple solutions like this rain harvesting facility can change lives of Malawians in health facilities that lack water.”
