By Tione Andsen, MANA
Coronavirus should serve as a wake up call to many Malawians to develop the habit of washing hands with soap always as part hygiene practices.
National Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) Programme Manager in Ministry of Health, Holystone Kafanikhale said this during the WASH stakeholder’s breakfast meeting which was held at Bingu Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.
He said with the advent of the Coronavirus most using are encouraging people to wash their hands with soap to prevent the spread of the virus
Kafanikhale said it was sad to note that over 36 per cent of households in the country are provided with hand washing facilities but only 11 per cent using soap.
“We are saying in every 100 people 89 are in danger of contracting diseases of any form due to the tendency of not using soap when washing their hands,” he explained.
Kanikhale said every household need to be encouraged to using soap when using hand washing facilities.
He said it looks like it’s our traditional not used to wash hands when doing other things rather than when one wants to partake food in our homes
The Programme Manager said traditional and religious leaders could play a meaningful role to help the government to promote culture of hand washing using soap.
He said most of the disease that are being reported in mostly health facilities as aresult of not washing hands properly using soap.
Kafanikhale said communities should not take basic hygiene practices for granted saying this could be a source of various water borne disease out breaks if not being serious with them.
Executive Secretary for Water Services Association of Malawi (WASAMA), Dokani Ngwira said rate of disconnections among residents grew from 17 per cent to 19 per cent in 2018/2019.
He said this was due to non-commitment by water users to honour their monthly water bills in time.
Ngwira added that the country’s water boards were owed over K30 billion as of December 2019 due to non-payment of water bills by various government ministries, departments and agencies.
‘We are not sure how much has been paid now. We believe the payment of such outstanding bills will help the Water Boards to improve their service delivery and provide water regularly to the consumers in the country,” he explained.
