Malawi on Monday silently commemorated the World Population Day as population boom continues to negatively affect social services.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world: 65 percent of the population here lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day, and nearly one in 10 children die before their fifth birthday. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS
Population expert Dr Collins Kalua said there was need to sensitize the youth, who are the bulk of the population in Malawi, to delay marriages as way of slowing the population growth.
“The best way to delay the marriages of the youth is to keep them in school for long but the problem is that we have very few places in public colleges. We can keep them in primary and secondary schools but they might not find space in colleges,” said Kalua.
He however said there was need to sensitize the youth on the disadvantages of early marriages.
Dedza east MP Juliana Lunguzi said if left unchecked, Malawi will continue to have inadequate resources for its people like for health, education and other social services will not be adequate.
Malawi population currently stands at 17.6 million, data from National Statistical Office (NSO) indicates.
According to NSO, Malawi has now over male 8 730 731 males and females 8 932 889 respectively.
Information minister Patricia Kaliati said the government will continue doing civic education to its people on the evils of over population.
Kaliati said the high rate of population growth, particularly is a matter of “serious concern” as it is having an adverse impact on the available national resources.
“We talk about rising costs of essential commodities, inflation… all these are a direct result of increasing population,” she noted.
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe has said new population figure is scary and calls for intensified family planning.
“We have more people to feed and income per capita is expected to be reduced,” Gondwe said.
According to Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) president Henry Kachaje said the rise in population is of great concern because it puts more stress on natural and financial resources.
A population expert said the population rate has drastically dropped from six per cent 20 years ago to 4.4 per cent.
According to the latest World Bank report, total population in Malawi was last recorded at 16.8 million people in 2014, from 3.5 million in 1960, representing a 377 percent increase in 50 years.
The Malawi population is projected to be over 30 million by 2040.
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These are politics of 2019. Let me guess, in 2018, we shall be told that the southern region has the largest population growth : that is say 20% translating to 7000 registered voters, the centre 15% translating to 4000 registered voters, and the north 10% translating 2000 voters. The south will out vote the other two therefore DIPIPI will rule forever. We are many but not very many I may not be a population specialist, 52 years ago there were a mere 3,000,000 souls in this country , 17,500,000 would mean a growth of more than 500% !! An average… Read more »
Why the government not come up with policy of two children per family or three .civic education will not work because we have been preaching for while about to reduce population
Population is not always a problem. Actually a productive population provide both labour and a market. Look at China they can consume their own products and companies can survive. Almost all countries that are successful have huge populations. DRC and Sudan have huge countries bigger than mainland Europe minus Russia. And their population are peanuts compared to that of even smaller countries in Europe. I am sure if DRC had a productive huge population , the country would have been more developed than Japan. No one can do a sensible business in Botswana because there is no market (i.e. small… Read more »
I totally beg to disagree with what is being reported here. We are told by numerous reports in the media that our problems are mismanagement of financial resources, lack of implementing of various policy decisions, corruption and theft of government funds. This mismanagement breeds lack of education about family planning resulting in having children one cannot adequately manage. Those who can manage their children, this issue is a non starter tisanamize wanthu!!!Population alone is a sub sect of these problems. A big population is good for the economy as it will provide a source of cheap labor and can spur… Read more »
ALMOST ALL PROBLEMS FACING MALAWI TODAY HAVE A DIRECT OR INDIRECT LINK TO ESCALATING POPULATION. UNTIL THAT PROBLEM IS SOLVED, ALL DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS ARE FRUITLESS. MORE SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS WILL BE BUILT, MORE HEALTH AND EDUCATION PERSONNEL TRAINED, MORE AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES MAY COME IN, BUT PROBLEMS WILL STILL LINGER AROUND. WILL WILL ALWAYS BE BACK TO SQUARE ONE AND EVEN WORSE. IT PAINS ME TO LEARN THAT ZAMBIA, A BIGGER COUNTRY THAN MALAWI HAS LOWER POPULATION THAN MALAWI. WHAT ARE THE RELEVANT MINISTRIES DOING? WE NEED A BOLD LEADER WHO IS BOLD ENOUGH TO LIMIT NUMBER OF CHILDREN… Read more »
This an issue of a serious concern.If you sit along the township or any village way and you do your observation on women, you will see that every second woman has a child on her back. Most of these are very young mostly aged between 13 and 18. They are not encouraged to be serious with school and left scot free like free range goats and chickens.
Young families are also bearing children at alarming rate to almost having a child per year. Wondering if HIV/AIDS war is succeeding.
This is the main cause of poverty in Malawi where people still hold a belief that the number of children that one has translates into one’s richness
This is the weakness of Government,we should borrow what our friends are doing in Europe,make a law that each family should have not more than 2 children.This law has helped to maintain a population in Denmark.Denmark is a small country compared to Malawi,and yet they are miles ahead of us as far as GDP is concerned,they too did not have any minerals as we were,but they were lending African countries for development.We too can do the same if we follow their policy.