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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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
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.