Poor water access poses cholera risk
Residents in rural and low income urban areas in Malawi continue to face challenges in access to safe water which poses a risk of re-emergence of cholera.
Last month Malawi declared the end of a two year battle with cholera which killed 1 772 people but experts say poor access to water could lead to the resurgence of cholera.
In separate interviews with The Nation, residents of Blantyre, Dedza, Nkhata Bay and Machinga narrated the challenges they are facing in accessing potable water.
In Machinga, group village head Jalifu said her area has more than 100 households but there is no safe water.
“Since I was born in 1985, we have depended on a well for our water supply. Our bodies have built up immunity to waterborne illnesses due to our daily use of contaminated water,” she said.
A community member Amina Mangani, 46, said she walks over 4 kilometres to access water from the well.
“Our lives are in danger because issues of sanitation have been compromised and we are exposed to cholera and other waterborne diseases,” she said.
On his part, Traditional Authority Kabunduli of Nkhata Bay said communities at Mzenga drink unsafe water from Luchereni River.
Patricia Memadi, who lives in Makhetha Township in Blantyre, said she spends K300 a day to buy water at K50 per bucket at a borehole.
“However, the water is still not enough for my family’s daily needs so I top up with water from a dug well,” she said.
A Water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) expert Willie Mwandira described it as unfortunate that about 70 percent people in the country still lack access to safe water.
Mwandira, who is Water and Environmental Sanitation Network executive director, said inadequate financing in the Wash sector means that Malawi is unlikely to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six which challenges countries to ensure access and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.
“The country needs an annual investment of K386 billion into the Wash sector, if we are to achieve the SDG 6, with services that are climate resilient,” he said.
According to Unicef, Malawi’s Wash budget declined by 61 percent from K127 billion in the 2022/23 fiscal year to K49.5 billion in 2023/24 financial year.
Professor of public health and epidemiology at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Adamson Muula, said in a separate interview that it will not be surprising if another outbreak emerges as Malawi has been scratching the problem of cholera.
He said: “There have not been much notable changes in access to potable water for many citizens. We continue to see people using the same unsafe water sources.”
In an earlier interview, Ministry of Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Elias Chimulambe said the government is implementing interventions such as providing safe water at lower tariffs.
Malawi bat t led an outbreak of cholera between March 3 2022 and July 10 2024, registering 59 376 cases.
