Perils on the rails

Frustration. Questions. Sexually transmitted diseases. These have become a by-word in Mwanza, Neno and Chikhwawa following the failure by government and railway construction firms to lift the lid on lack of HIV and Aids interventions amid a culture of secrecy on the Nacala Corridor Railway Project. JAMES CHAVULA writes.

They came to build a track to transport Mozambique’s coal, but they and the railway line could end up carrying poor Malawians on the highway to the grave. History will not judge the Government of Malawi kindly if it does not step in to get Vale—a Brazilian mining and logistics firm—to play its part in combating escalating sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and Aids, said Village Head Gadama of Chikhwawa.

Gadama has seen it all—perilous sex webs climaxing into a furious future for his area which lies near Emvulo Camp for a migrant workforce laying the 139-kilometre freight line funded by Vale.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Gadama.

The traditional leader kept shaking his head with shock and disbelief as his village continues to welcome hundreds of construction workers from all parts of the country, the personnel spilling from the far-flung camp in Chikhwawa.

“The end of the railway construction project could be the beginning of an HIV and Aids catastrophe for both residents and visitors who have been taken up by the heightened flow of money to engage in risky sex which sometimes involves young, school-going girls,” said Gadama.

The end marking the feared heartbreak is drawing close. When she presided over the ground-breaking ceremony marking the beginning of the construction works in Neno on December 6 2012, President Joyce Banda indicated that the stretch would be ready by December 2014.

From the President’s speech, the nation understood the necessity of the project: It will reduce the burden of transporting goods which accounts for 60 percent of landing costs in the country. The contractors will also rehabilitate the country’s ailing railway line.

But talk is cheap. From Mwanza Boma, Zalewa and villages surrounding the camps, visitors are confronted by the ruinous impact of the highly touted project: Numbers of pubs and hideouts for sex work are tripling. The workers that have left their stable sexual partners faraway are a common sight along the emerging railway, often paying up to K10 000 (US$24) for sex and nearly K15 000 (US$36) for sex without using condoms.

Nearly all cheap lodges are flooded by sex workers ready to cash in on the free-flowing cash, with personnel of Limbika Lodge chasing over 30 of them to prevent the facility from becoming a noisy sex haven, according to lodge manager Anafi John. Desperate to grab the crumbs of the railway project, the female folk is flocking closer to the camps of Mkwinda in Neno and Emvulo in Chikhwawa.

What visitors may not encounter today has been the major headache for the likes of Gadama and affected locals—awareness about the benefits of the railway line and its dangers.

“We don’t know how we will benefit from the railway line. Since the President launched the project, nobody has cared to conduct awareness meetings to help locals appreciate its advantages and to safeguard themselves against STIs resulting from the influx of migrant workers,” lamented Gadama, who said he feels insulted every time teachers and workers approach him to warn his people to stick to ABC—abstinence, be faithful to one partner or condomise—to stay out of harm’s way since STIs are on the increase.

Health workers at Chithumba near Emvulo and Partners in Health at Zalewa close to Mkwinda confirmed a sharp increase in the menace of STIs, which predispose patients to HIV infections, but could not divulge the figures because the Ministry of Health bars them from speaking to the press.

Traditional leaders wonder why Vale and its main contractor Mota-Engil are not investing in community awareness programmes when they know that their migrant workers are living in the villages and sleeping around with locals.

Even Mwanza district health officer Raphael Piringu said he has been struggling with this question ever since it emerged that risky sexual tendencies and STIs are drastically increasing while Vale and Mota-Engil shun their social responsibility of protecting their workers by investing in community outreach initiatives.

“One cannot understand why the construction firms have taken nearly a year without investing anything in community awareness, preventive and treatment measures. Government will pay a huge penalty to avert the looming crisis if it does not stop the ticking bomb now,” said Piringu.

The ticking of the time bomb is loud and clear in the latest study carried out by Mwanza District Council in July to measure the impact of development projects on public health.

The study indicates health centres in the district reported a nearly 50-percent increase in STIs cases in the past 12 months.

But the figures do not surprise Loreta Mkwichi who heads the National Network of Sex Workers established by Pakachere Health and Communication Institute.

The figures could be symptomatic of a graver disaster, she says.

“It is clear sexual activity has gone up strikingly. Even girls under 18 are being lured from all corners of the country by the aroma of money from the railway project even though they are powerless to insist on safe sex.

“That is why government must shake up the construction firms to start implementing sensitisation programmes to save the lives of their workers who constitute the majority of our clients,” said Mkwichi, who lives in Mwanza.

The central position the railway project occupies in the neighbouring populations’ perilous nightlife was aptly summed up by lamentations of a 17-year-old girl christened Amanda to safeguard her identity in a country  where her kind are chastised as illegal, immoral, sinful, spouse-snatchers and harbingers of death.

Sipping wine and smoking Peter Stuyvesant in Kilimanjaro Bar at Zelewa in June, when the locals working with Mota-Engil went on strike against low pay, racist tendencies and an influx of Thai expatriates whom they accused of hijacking jobs from skilled Malawians, Amanda lamented: “With the Portuguese clients locked in the camps, how are we going to eat and pay rentals for the room?

“Can the locals afford K10 000 for short-time sex as the foreigners do?” she wondered.

Rewind to last year, Amanda was drinking Chibuku opaque beer and smoking cheap cigarettes because she could only sleep with one to three clients a night in high-density parts of Lilongwe where sex prices range from K300 o K700.

But the life-threatening ignorance being propelled by lack of awareness programmes came clear in the confessions of the sex worker and her colleagues: They usually accept unprotected sex at a higher price “especially when the client looks health—not bony, sickly, with rashes or HIV positive.”

Undergoing HIV testing is the only cocksure way of establishing one’s HIV status, as relying on looks is not only flawed but also a fertile seedbed for stigma and discrimination.

That some people still think this is the way to go solidifies the call for intensive community outreach initiatives to dispel myths about HIV infections and influence behavioural change.

The reluctance to plug the gap is baffling considering that Vale contributes billions of dollars to the Global Fund which supports the country’s fight against HIV and Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

In its environmental and social impact management plan Weekend Nation has accessed, Vale envisages that the creation of temporary jobs on the Nacala Corridor Project would increase infectious diseases.

To avert the foreseen crisis, Vale pledges to invest K112 million in “health awareness raising with a focus on education” and “to thoroughly spread information about the spread of HIV and Aids-related problems,” according to the plan.

The Brazilian mining giant and its contractor Mota-Engil also dedicated K56 million (US$133 971) to ensure management of migrant workers to reduce social and health problems associated with construction camps.

Rather than achieving the envisioned reduction in the spread of diseases and what Vale calls its “contribution to initiatives in the area dealing with such issues”, doubts, blame games and what-ifs are gaining sway following the company’s failure to honour its promises.

District health officer Piringu calls this a raw deal while the study on STIs exposed blame-shifting between Vale and its sub-contractors because the environmental and social management plan does not stipulate the rightful agency to carry out the works towards reducing the spread of HIV.

Since June, both Vale and Mota-Engil have not responded to our questions on the matter.

As the railway line takes shape and the completion deadline draws closer, one thing is clear: The influx of construction workers and sex workers are turning Mwanza and Neno, which have traditionally been at the centre of cross-border trade and long-distance trucking, into what Malawi Network of People Living with HIV (Manet+) executive director Safari Mbewe termed “a high-risk corridor” of new infections.

Mwanza district commissioner Gift Lapozo says it is “a natural phenomenon” that multimillion dollar construction projects bring business opportunities as well as risks of HIV infections, but confirms the worst-case scenario: There are no new interventions on the ground to mitigate the new public health challenge.

This has to change, said National Aids Commission (NEC) board T/A Makwangwala during a countrywide tour two months ago.

“Government is equally worried with the situation in Mwanza and other districts affected by the railway project. There is need for investors to put in place intervention to scale down HIV infections.

“NAC will continue engaging the construction firms to find an amicable solution to end the silence which could be costly and erode gains the country has made in fighting HIV and Aids,” said Makwangwala.

But with one in 10 people in the country living with the virus that causes Aids,  it is only by translating such promising talk into life-changing action that government will save its people from being trampled upon by the giant feet of multinational companies whose footprints go one way—maximising profits at all cost.