‘Potable water crucial to containing cholera’

Nkhata Bay District Council spokesperson Patrick Botha says potable water is crucial to containing the prevailing cholera outbreak in the district.

He said this in an interview on Monday after Nkhata Bay District Hospital registered the deaths of two more people who succumbed to cholera.

Botha said it was sad that cholera cases were rising after the district recorded a steady decline in recent weeks where no death had been reported.

He said lack of potable and safe drinking water remains a major challenge in countering further spread of the disease.

Said Botha: “More cases are being registered in Tukombo and Liuzi. Lack of potable clean water in these cholera hotspots remains a big concern as some people are still drinking water from unsafe sources.

“I, therefore, appealed to well-wishers and stakeholders who pledged to drill boreholes in cholera hotspots to honour their pledges.”

In a separate interview, Nkhata Bay District Hospital spokesperson Christopher Singini asked stakeholders to enhance their efforts to curb the outbreak.

“Cholera cases have risen in the past 48 hours. We have registered 29 cases and two deaths in the past 48 hours. As a district, we continue to monitor the situation and follow up on interventions,” he said.

On August 18, Minister of Water and Sanitation Abida Mia told people in Nkhata Bay that her ministry would drill boreholes in Tukombo within two weeks of her visit to Tukombo Cholera Treatment Unit.

She said this in the company of Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda, who also visited the district to assess the situation.

Mia said her ministry would deploy water bowsers to supply potable water in the area as they await boreholes and water schemes.

Nkhata Bay District recorded its first cholera case on  August 7 this year. Since then, the district has registered 707 cumulative confirmed cases and 19 deaths.