Feature


By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi

Whenever the time for him to answer to a call of nature ticked, it was
like the time for him to climb a huge mountain since he had to squat
to the toilet using his limbs at risk of contracting diseases due to
the toilet’s unhygienic conditions.

This was what one Dayisoni Elisa, 57, from Madziayenda Village in
Chiuzira Area, Traditional Authority (T/A) Tsabango in Lilongwe used
to go through!

“I have paralyzed legs therefore previously going to the toilet was
very difficult for me. But now it’s history because I am able to enter
the toilet with my wheelchair and relieve myself after Water Aid
Malawi and its partners constructed an ideal toilet for people like
me,” he told a team of journalists including members of WASH Media Forum Malawi during a recent media tour organized by WaterAid Malawi, disclosing that he is unlike previuosly also able to go to the bathroom
with ease.

“The bathroom has also adequate space that accommodates my
wheelchair,” he added.

Elisa is just one of the beneficiaries of Water Aid Malawi and its
partners’ Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) project deliberately
targeting Equity and Inclusion of vulnerable groups such as people
with disabilities often excluded from WASH facilities access across
the country.

“The construction of the toilets for vulnerable groups such as people
with disabilities with support from Water Aid Malawi has bring hope
and improved the lives of the beneficiaries in my area,” said Village
Headman Kamoyo from Chiuzira.

Chiuzira Health Committee chairperson Lazaro Lemoni Banda disclosed
that apart from empowering the excluded groups with WASH facilities
they have been tirelessly sensitizing people in the community with
good sanitary practices.

“Previously we had high incidences of poor sanitation including the
practice of Open Defecation here which often led to cholera
outbreaks,” he said.

Banda disclosed that for instance in 2010 the area had 28 cholera
cases and 3 deaths due to a cholera outbreak.

“As of now such cases have rarely been reported since people in the
area now practice good sanitary activities due to our intensive
campaigns. We are working with local chiefs and 10 Health Surveillance
Assistants (HSAs) to sensitize the communities,” he said.

Water and Sanitation Facilitator for Chiuzira, Area 23, Area 24 and
Area 36, Johnstone Arthur Mhango disclosed that over 30 toilets were
constructed in Chiuzira at a cost of over K200, 000 each with support
from Water Aid Malawi.

“These are not just ordinary toilets because they have economic
benefits since households can use human wastes as manure. It takes
just about 9 months to harvest them to apply them in the garden or
sell,” he said.

Apart from Chiuzira which has 4,216 households and WaterAid Malawi is
working with Lilongwe City Assembly as a partner, the international
Non-Governmental-Organization (NGO) also works with other partners in
other districts such as Machinga, Salima, Nkhotakota and Mzimba to
uplift WASH needs for the excluded groups.

This is appreciating the difficulties such groups go through to
access WASH facilities in the country since Malawi’s National
Sanitation Policy document was silent on empowerment of for instance,
people with disabilities on WASH facilties access.

Vulnerable groups including people with disabilities and physical
challenges are at high risk of contracting diseases such as cholera
since in most slums in the country toilets are unclean with fecal
matter making it inaccessible or a health hazard to those who may have
mobility challenges.

They even at risk of injuries and death while answering to calls of
nature in even sub-standard toilet structures in slums in Malawi.

In fact a Water Aid Malawi commissioned study in Malawi revealed that
excluded people are those who have been systematically discriminated
against for various reasons – with some factors beyond their control
and include women, disabled people, People Living With HIV/AIDS
(PLWHA), children and the elderly.

The organization says despite all the advantages of development
brought about by the 21st century and modern countries being committed
to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is widely recognized
that reaching the poorest, the excluded and the most disadvantaged
people poses a big challenge.

The document adds that the extent of this problem and its impact on
communities needs to be focused on in order to stimulate and energize
players in the water and sanitation field into improving levels of
inclusion of the vulnerable in their programmes.

The paper discloses that a research found that the technologies being
promoted by WaterAid Malawi-supported projects for instance were
user-friendly to disabled people apart from the Sky-loo toilets and
the hand washing basins.

The Sky-loo toilets according to the study do not provide easy
accessibility as they are too high and some of the hand-washing basins
are placed too high for children and disabled people to reach.

National Coordinator for Water and Environmental Sanitation Network
(WESN) in Malawi Ngabaghila Chatata said that access to safe WASH is a
human right as it underpins human development thus enabling people to
overcome poverty.

“However, many Malawians just like other people in poor developing
countries on the globe are struggling to enjoy such a right due to
poverty, marginalisation, and social exclusion inextricably linked,”
said Chatata.

She explained that there is need for policy makers in the country to
first understand how people are excluded from WASH services and how
this relates to power dynamics and control of resources within the
family, the community and at institutional levels if the situation is
to be changed for the benefit of masses in Malawi.

On water safe water access If there is one area Malawi Government is boasting about, then it is that Malawi is already ahead of the 74 Millenium Development Goal (MDG) safe water access by 2015 since according to Lilongwe, over 80
per 100 Malawians in the over 13 million population are accessing safe
clean water.

In fact you will even be told that in the 2010/2011 fiscal year alone
government constructed 560 new boreholes benefiting close to 140,000
new users; rehabilitated 220 boreholes accessed by 55,000 people;
rehabilitated 912 water taps catering for 109,000 people; and
completed rehabilitation of Chilobwe, Kalitsiro and Lizulu rural water
schemes and Nkhamanga gravity-fed piped water supply schemes in
Malawi.

You will even be informed that with respect to urban water supply,
close to 9,000 new connections were made in 2010/2011 financial year
and over 7,000 stuck meters were replaced throughout the country, and
construction of water works in Mzuzu and Likoma within the 2010/2011
financial year were finalized.

Policy makers in Lilongwe will even add that some of the programmes
which Malawi Government has lined up for the 2011/2012 financial year
include: improving urban and rural water supply and sanitation.
However, since 36-year-old Zainah Filipo was born and brought up in Bokola
Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwanza in Salima District in the central region of the country on the shores of Lake Malawi, she has always dreamed a day she would access safe water near her house.

But such a dream has since time immemorial remained just a
wishful thought for Filipo and other women in her village and other
surrounding villages of Meke, Samuel and Mtambo.

“During the rainy season we have to draw dirty water for drinking and
cooking from a trench. This trench was formed due to soil erosion. The
place dries and the water is unsafe because some villagers also use it
as toilet through Open Defecation,” said Filipo, a mother of six
during a recent Media Tour to her village which was organized for
journalists by Water Aid Malawi.

“When the dry season comes on the other hand we have to wake up as
early as 4 a.m. and walk about 3 Km to Namizu River in search for
water,” she said, disclosing that the women have to dig on the river
bed to access water.

Filipo explained that collecting water from the river puts them at
risks of being attacked including raped by criminals apart from
contracting waterborne diseases such as Cholera.

“To get to the place to fetch water we have for safety reasons move in
a group and sometimes under an escort of men,” she said.

But the good news is that Filipo and other women from Bokola Village
and its neighbours’ water problems will now be history since on
September 12 this year they were to start drawing safe water from a
borehole constructed with support from the ‘Big Dig’ initiative.

In the initiative WaterAid-International and some media celebrities in
the United Kingdom (UK) are raising funds in for borehole drilling in
Malawi.

"WaterAid's Big Dig Appeal wants to bring clean water to over 134,000
people in rural Malawi,” Lorraine Kelly, one of the media celebrities
engaged in the campaign told ITV in the UK adding that these poor
Malawian communities have no choice but to walk hours each day to
collect dirty water that will make them ill.

“A donation of just £15 [about K7, 500] to ‘The Big Dig Appeal’ will
bring clean, safe water to one person for life. Join me in supporting
‘The Big Dig Appeal’ and help WaterAid change lives forever," she
said.

According to Malawi Government’s latest figures on safe water access
at least 83 per 100 people in the over 13 million population are
accessing safe water in the southern African nation.

“As a country, with support from our donor partners we have made
several outstanding strides in water development in the country,” said
Malawi’s Minister responsible for Water Ritchie Bizwick Muheya.

But a 2008 Joint Sector Review (JSR) Report reveals that Malawi has
communities with 65 per 100 and about 46 per 100 accessing safe
drinking water and proper sanitation respectively.

And due to lack of access to these basic human needs, 33 children
under- five die from water related diseases daily in Malawi according
to UNICEF.