WaterAid Malawi has revealed that at least 24 percent of the country’s health-care facilities lack access to basic water supply, a situation that undermines the delivery of quality Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services.
The organisation says access to safe water is essential for ensuring high standards of WASH, which is critical for protecting patients and improving health outcomes.
WaterAid Malawi’s Head of Advocacy and Communications, Chandiwira Chisi, disclosed this on Tuesday during a media engagement capacity-building workshop in Mponela.
Chisi stressed that the absence of reliable WASH systems in health-care facilities negatively affects maternal, newborn, and child health, saying the situation exposes patients especially mothers and babies to preventable infections and complications.
“People go to hospitals to seek life. Babies are born in health care facilities but at the moment we still have a situation where a quite good number of facilities does not have standard WASH services which is a great concern to us,” said Chisi.
In her remarks, the Chairperson for WASH Media Forum, Meclina Chirwa, stressed the need to review issues regarding WASH in health care facilities.
She added that 52 percent of the diseases that the citizenry suffer are caused due to low access to clean and safe water hence a need to invest more in WASH sector.
“In most cases, allocation in WASH is under-funded making it difficult for the facilities to operate, therefore, we need to invest more in this sector so that we protect mothers and newborns from fatal infections,” Chirwa lamented.
