By Chilungamo Missi
Blantyre, August 26, Mana: Officials at Lundu Health Centre and Traditional leaders under Traditional Authority (T/A) Lundu in Blantyre have joined hands to promote household hygiene through door to door monitoring visits.
This comes upon noticing that some villages in the area are year in year out not spared every time when there was a Cholera outbreak in the district.
The observation was made on Thursday when Blantyre district Water, Health and Sanitation (WASH) Cluster team visited Lundu Health Centre to appreciate the heath facilities response to the outbreak.
Senior Health Surveillance Assistant (SHSA), Sigrace Chikoti said lack of toilets in the area was a fueling factor to Cholera and other related diseases.
“Whenever there is a Cholera outbreak, villages of Pindani, Kapyepye, Maole, and Zamaneba are always affected in this area, so we sat down with chiefs to see how best we can deal with this problem, and the chiefs gave two weeks grace period to their people to make sure they all have toilets”.
“Every house which will be found without a toilet will be summoned to the T/A for punishment”, said Chikoti.
She added that involvement of the traditional leaders to support HSAs to encourage people to construct toilets and avoid open defecation.
Blantyre District Water Development Officer, Tamara Zembeni said they depend on community efforts to make sure that Blantyre district is making strides on health issues.
She said: “When initiatives originate from the district to communities most of the times they flop as communities feel they were imposed on them. The best practice is for communities to decide for course of action to be taken.
“In this case as a district we feel this area will soon be cholera free as the community members will own the initiative of making sure each and every household has adopted good hygiene and sanitation practices”.
Group Village Headman (GVH)Lunguzi confirmed that together with health officials from Lundu Health Centre they will embark on the exercise on September 1, 2022 with villages found in areas of GVH Lundu and GVH Maliko.
Meanwhile, Blantyre district has over 400 cumulative number of Cholera confirmed cases with 21 deaths; and Lundu Health Centre registered seven Cholera cases this year.
