By George Bulombola

Mzuzu, April 4, Mana: It was February 2023. Malawi was slowly plunging in a health crisis with over 42,427 cases of cholera and 1,400 deaths confirmed nationwide. What started as a single case was growing day by day. The threat of cholera was now more than just a threat. with limited access to safe and clean water as the main cause for the escalating outbreak.

The damning statistics did not only scare Getrude Sichali Ng’oma, chairperson of Communal Water Point 13 at Kamija Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mkumbira in Nkhata Bay District was at that time marked as a Cholera hotspot.

Meanwhile her communal water point was disconnected for a K132,000 bill forcing community members to draw water from unprotected shallow wells some two kilometers away.

 As fellow women passed by her doorstep heading to the well to draw water with a ‘please bail us out’ look stuck on their faces, Sichali felt helpless, and her heart bled.

“With the rising cases of cholera, it was a worrying situation for us because we sadly knew that sooner or later, we may be hit as we were drinking from unprotected sources. Our kiosk had been disconnected for almost a year after we failed to settle an accumulated bill of K132,000,” she recalls.

Then came the announcement on the radio that the Government had ordered the reopening of all kiosks as a way of containing cholera which was rampant in low-income areas.

While the news brought relief to Sichali as the kiosk leader, the news did not resolve the issue of the outstanding bills and that worried her still. The fear of the bill piling up to unmanageable debt.

A few days after the announcement, Sichali and community members received another news that would now offer a big relief. Apart from the reconnection, the Northern Region Water Board (NRWB)would clear their bill, reconnect them with a prepaid meter besides providing them with free water tokens for a period of 6 months from February to August 2023.

“We received water board officials who came to deliver the news, but I was skeptical at first because that looked like a dream. I doubted it was happening,” recollects Sichali.

That dream came to pass a few days later as the team from NRWB came to reconnect the kiosk with a prepaid metre and water started flowing.

 Later, the board’s chairperson, Frank Mwenifumbo accompanied by District Commissioner for Nkhata Bay, Rodgers Newa visited the communal water point with the free water tokens to kickstart the Free Water Token Initiative for all communal water points within the board’s supply area.   

“We got our first two tokens for March and April 2023. It was an unbelievable moment as our debt was also wiped out. All we had to do was go to the board’s office monthly to get our free tokens for the remaining months,” added Sichali.

According to Chief Executive Officer for NRWB, Francis Munthali, the Free Water Token Initiative was inspired by the Presidential initiative ‘Tithetse Cholera Campaign’ as part of the Ministry of Water and Sanitation National Cholera response plan on WASH.

“We collaborated with Government to reduce the impact and spread of the outbreak. To this end, we came up with this initiative utilizing part of the funds saved under the European Investment Bank (EIB) financed Malawi NRWB Water Efficiency Project – about Euro 199,999 approximately K217 million.

“We are glad that the EIB approved this request because it accelerated access to water by vulnerable and low-income communities and consequently reduced and contained the outbreak within our supply areas,” explains Munthali.

From Kamija, to Chibavi Location in Mzuzu and Mwanganda kiosk in Karonga District, 400 kiosks benefitted from the initiative. Each of the kiosks transitioned to a prepaid metering system as a deliberate mechanism to enhance proper management of communities’ water consumption and usage.

It did not end there. Over 90 public secondary and primary schools that were disconnected or struggling to settle their bills also benefited from the intervention.

According to Deputy Director of Health for Mzuzu City Council, Mavuto Lupwayi, the initiative was a game changer in the city’s drive to stop the spread of the disease besides promoting general hygiene practices.

“In the city, we have some communities who lacked access to potable water. So, this was a key intervention that helped us contain cholera in the city such that we did not have high cases,” Lupwayi states.

Apart from the free tokens and clearing of debt, the initiative trained members of communal water points on sustainability of the water supply after the expiry of the initiative’s period. Six months after the initiative, almost all kiosks remain connected with members able to buy water tokens on their own.

“You can see that beneficiary communities of the initiative have now proceeded to buy water tokens beyond the six months. We engaged and trained them to use this period when they have access to free water to rebuild themselves and plan for payments after,” added Munthali.

At Kamija, the community is now relieved as its communal water point is still operational.

“I am happy. The free water supply period gave us time to plan for life after the initiative and now we have put in place mechanisms to ensure that we don’t get disconnected again. I am happy that through this initiative our area was spared of the outbreak,” concludes Sichali with a smile.