An invention in Malaui so that women like Ntata do not walk more than a kilometer recently to look for water | Future planet

by Andrea
0 comments

Aida Ntata had finished giving birth to the Chimvu Health Center, in the district of Thyolo, south of Malaui, and had to get up and walk more than a kilometer to look for water. He needed to wash and clean his clothes, but the health center did not have running water. “It was not easy for me to look for water shortly after giving birth. At that time, we had to wait an hour, because there was a single well for all the town. I had to leave the water cubes with my tutor and run to attend my baby,” recalls this woman from the Kalimbuka people, in the traditional authority of Boyd, a year after the birth of her son, in April 2024.

Three years ago, Sarah Rodgers lived the same story. “A person needs water all the time, but for a woman, it is crucial during childbirth. It is very distressing that a health center does not have water. I had to go looking for her to be able to wash and clean myself,” he recalls. She, she says, had the strength to do so. But not everyone gets it, alert. What happened to Ntata and Rodgers was not exceptional. In most countries in the world, collecting water is usually a trade that falls on girls and women. In Malaui, according to a (WHO) report published Tuesday, 76% of women are responsible for bringing this resource to homes.

The great aggravating is availability. In Malaui, 86% of families in urban areas have access to drinking water; The proportion drops to 70% in rural areas, according to the latest WHO data, due to the climate phenomenon of El Niño and the climatic emergency.

It was not easy for me to look for water shortly after giving birth

AIDA NTATA, Malauí Woman

The rate, paradoxically, is even lower in health centers. Only 24% have running water, according to WHO, which embodies a lethal danger for pregnant women. Every year, according to, more than 17 million women from the poorest countries in the world face births in health centers without adequate water, sanitation or hygiene measures [conocidas como WASH, por sus siglas en inglés]which puts them at risk of getting diseases such as cholera, among others. The consequence is the death of a million people a year in the world for.

In the same place where Ntata and Rodgers were at risk, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has developed a project to collect rainwater conceived to provide clean water to health centers. The focus is on maternity services, in order to guarantee safe births and reduce the maternal and neonatal mortality rate.

One of the rainwater collection tanks at the Chimvu Health Center.

Dr. Jakub Gajowski, main co-investigator of the RCSI in the Surg-Water project, says they wanted [SODIS, por su acrónimo en inglés].

This technology, he explains, does not need more than sunlight and rain, two abundant resources in Malaui. The treated water allows health personnel to wash their hands, sterilize instruments, clean the paritor and maintain basic hygiene. In environments with few resources, these interventions can reduce those up to 44%, according to the UN.

A “serious risk”

“I have been working in Malaui for more than a decade and I have witnessed, again and again, how much access influences – or, rather, the lack of access – to drinking water in the existence of essential sanitary services. What has impressed me the most were the moments in which there was no water in the centers where women gave birth. It is not a mere discomfort, but a serious risk, especially for 80% of the population, which lives in rural areas, Gajewski warns.

“These experiences have made me understand that in Malaui access to drinking water in health centers is a serious and constant problem. Without a reliable source of water supply, basic hygiene is practically impossible, with the consequent damage to maternal and neonatal health,” he says.

Christabel Kambala, an associated professor at the University of Business Sciences and applied in Malaui (MBAS), points out that the project has arrived in a context in which the climatic crisis has sharpened the shortage of water in rural health centers.

Without a reliable source of water supply, basic hygiene is practically impossible

Jakub Gajewski, Coinvestigador Principal del RCSI

“When we meet with the RCSI, we examine and analyze the resources that do not take advantage and think about the collection of rainwater,” he says. To collect it, they use two deposits, each with capacity of 10,000 liters. “The water that uses a center on a normal day is less than 100 liters,” Kambala calculates, “that’s why we believe the system will be useful, because, for example, in the health centers of Chimvu and Thekerani, approximately 60 deliveries per month and water reserves would be enough would be enough.”

Like Kambala, Dr. Gajowski admits that climate change has created enormous difficulties. The rains every time. “But this system is designed to capture and store enough rain even during short or dispersed chaparrons, so that it guarantees a constant supply throughout the year. This resilience is essential to face the threats, increasing, derived from the alterations of the climate,” he says.

“We are currently developing a version of the system that can be built almost entirely with materials available in Malaui. Our goal is to extend it to the whole country and inspire similar solutions in other environments with few resources,” explains the researcher.

source

You may also like

Our Company

News USA and Northern BC: current events, analysis, and key topics of the day. Stay informed about the most important news and events in the region

Latest News

@2024 – All Right Reserved LNG in Northern BC