People around Chilambwe Health Centre in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mankhambira in Nkhata Bay have teamed up to grade a five-kilometre road from the health facility to the main road at Sanga Trading Centre to ease mobility challenges.
The project follows mobility challenges people faced when taking pregnant women to the facility.
In an interview, group village head Kachipapa said community members contributed K2.6 million for the project.
fail to go to hospital
“The road has been in bad shape for long. Patients, especially pregnant women, find it hard to travel to the facility,” he said.
Chilambwe Development Trust national coordinator Benedicto Manda blamed political leaders for not showing commitment to upgrade the road.
“We have tried to engage elected leaders on the road project to no avail; hence, we resorted to raising money on our own to grade the road,” he said.
While acknowledging the problem, Nkhata Bay South East Constituency legislator Noah Chimpeni (People’s Party), blamed Nkhata Bay District Council, saying the Constituency Development Fund cheque meant for the road’s project was yet to be cleared at the council.
But Nkhata Bay district director of planning and development Isaac Mkandawire said the grader meant for the project broke down a few weeks ago.
Chilambwe Health Centre serves a population of about 14 000.
