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Mpherembe Health Centre faces water woes

Mpherembe Health Centre officer in-charge Marshal Mwenefumbo says the facility has been operating without piped water since April this year.

He said the situation in Mzimba North is affecting efforts to fight Covid-19 pandemic.

Mwenefumbo said the facility, located in Traditional Authority Mpherembe serves over 30 000 people.

The health facility has had no tap water for three months

He said: “We are finding it hard to render services with no reliable source of water. We are at the peak of the Covid-19 third wave and hygiene practices such as hand washing are supposed to be encouraged. But it’s a challenge due to lack of piped water.”

The facility’s officer-in-charge said to remedy the situation they are using nearby boreholes as source of water.

“Our water pump was taken to Lilongwe for repairs. However, it is now three months,” he said.

In an interview, Mzimba district health officer Dr Naomi Mulwafu said the district does not have resources to service the faulty water pump at the facility.

“We are aware of the situation. Actually, the problem at Mpherembe has been on and off because of the faulty water pump. So, we are working with the member of Parliament for the area Honourable Billy Kaunda to solve the problem.”

She said Kaunda is the one who offered to take the pump to Lilongwe to get it fixed.

“However, it was discovered that the problem was huge and the solution is just to source another pump, but we currently don’t have money,” said Mulwafu.

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