Water disconnected at Zomba Central Hospital, patients, guardians helpless
Southern Region Water Board has disconnected water at Zomba Central Hospital due to a staggering K6 million unpaid bill, putting pressure on patients and guardians as public hospitals in Malawi continue to collapse rapidly due to cash flow problems at Capital Hill, the seat of government.
Southern Region Water Board publicist Macdonald Phiri confirmed in a radio interview his organisation disconnected the water at the central hospital on Thursday.
He said talks between the water utility body and the hospital administration were going on inorder to restore the water.
Hospital workers said labour ward and the theatre have been hit hard by the disconnection and they did not rule out suspension of the facilities if the water is not connected.
Reports from the hospital say guardians are now drawing water from nearby water sources in pales whilst others have resorted to unprotected river water.
The water utility was disconnecting the water as health workers in Lilongwe, Dowa and Dedza marched peacefully to demand increased funding for the public health sector.
In Lilongwe, the doctors, nurses and other heallth workers presented a petition to parliament’s chair of Health Committee Juliana Lunguzi who promised to lobby for increased funding.
However, minister of Health Peter Kumpalume, while welcoming the lobbying for more funding for hospitals, said people must understand that revenue collection in Malawi is limited due to a number of factors.
He therefore said if the Malawi Revenue Authority does not collect enough revenue, it would e extremely difficult for the government to increase funding to his ministry.
Ministry of Health Adrian Chikumbe refused to comment on the disconnection of water at Zomba Central Hospital, saying he wanted to consult hospital administrators first.
This is disheartening… just as ZCH was improving in terms of service delivery….
Government must remedy this. I can’t imagine the theatre and labour ward without water!!
Hahahaha kay kd aja munkat anzelu,nd aprofessor hee ku america ndi awa kapena alipo wina akubwla?
Government and its department are staffed full of incompetent people heading them, a country which can elect Patricia Kaliati and Bony Kalindo as leaders which not expect competence in its institutions. We are poor because we make it poor for ourselves. All refers hospitals are poorly built, poor health facilities and poorly staffed, marks of a poor state being lead by incompetent people
u expect to spend k50 million to repatriate your citizens from South Africa but u failing to pay k6 million. what kind of senseless gvmt is Dpp
hehehe uja mumati ndiwa nzeru vyamunyere apa fokofuuuuuu
Ndi a MCP omwe akuchitsa kuti boma lisamaende bwino,onani lelo madzi kulibe ku ZCH.
Yes. Unfortunately Malawians have no culture of paying for what they consume.
Pay and water will be connected.
Why care about lives when you can buy a vehicle worth 56 million for speaker of parliament ? When U can buy a vehicle worth 48 million for Bowler ? When U can travel for nothing spending 2 million a day !!
Tell your Peter to pay that K6 million for his voters
wages of sin alomwe that ur vote plus