Shire River threatens Chikwawa District Hospital
Continued land degradation of Shire River is threatening the existence of Chikwawa District Hospital as the river is eating part of the land where the hospital stands.
The development means the hospital could eventually slide into the river if measures are not taken to address it.
Last Friday, Minister of Health Jappie Mhango, who was on a visit to eight health centres constructed by The Hunger Project, was taken to the hospital to appreciate the site where widening of the river banks is destroying some structures on the campus when the river swells.
The minister promised that his ministry would quickly send experts to assess the situation.
“I am very disturbed with the developments at this hospital. We have a duty to protect government infrastructure and that is why we are sending experts to check and make necessary recommendations,” he said. Chikwawa district health officer Stalin Banda, among other things, bemoaned the lack of ambulances to cater for the hospital’s 28 satellite health facilities spread across the flood prone district.
