Water woes have hit hard Katimbira Health Centre in Nkhotakota as the facility is relying on water supplied in buckets by some hired labourers.
The facility has been without water supply since its opening in 2003, forcing patients to fetch it from far.
The problem has been affecting operations at the facility, especially in maternity services. In an attempt to ease the problem, facility officials engaged three women who are supplying the hospital on daily basis.
“We cannot do without water, more especially in labour ward and that is why we had to purchase seven buckets [of 20 litres each] so that these women should be supplying us with water which is used mainly during deliveries,” said Jameson Phandama who is the health centre’s nurse and midwife technician.
Phandama said the health centre which registers about four deliveries a day mostly runs out of the water as all the seven buckets can be finished on a single woman who has delivered.
Phandama made the revelation on Wednesday when members of the media in Nkhotakota toured the facility to appreciate some of the challenges as expressed by members of Women Action Groups (Wag) and Citizen Forums (CF) from the area.
National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust in partnership with Water Aid with funding from DfID will in April start implementing a Deliver Life Project aimed at making sure that no child dies at birth.
Wag Chairperson, Mariam Banda, said they are expecting the project to address the problem.
“Water which is supplied in buckets is not adequate to women who have delivered. Women use washrooms which are outside the hospital and this is another challenge to a woman who has just delivered as she lacks energy to walk a distance to a bathroom,” Banda said.
Nice District Civic Education Officer for Nkhotakota, James Mumba, promised that they will supply the hospital with water using state-of-the-art solar pumping system once the project rolls out next month.
“Research has shown that sometimes women who go to deliver in hospitals, contract infections due to lack of water and hygiene facilities in our hospitals resulting in stillbirths,” Mumba said.
The project is being implemented in three districts of Kasungu, Nkhotakota and Machinga.
Leave a Reply