By Moses Nyirenda
Lilongwe, December 12, Mana: Water and Environmental Sanitation Network (WESNET) Executive Director Willies Mwandira has challenged journalists in the country to write more stories on issues concerning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in a quest to assist in addressing challenges affecting the WASH sector in the country.
Speaking on Tuesday at Capital Hotel in Lilongwe during media breakfast meeting for journalists under the banner ‘WASH Media Forum’, which was organized by WESNET, Mwandira said journalists have influence in promoting WASH related issues.
“As we all know that currently we are almost midway as we are approaching the year 2030 when we would like to achieve some Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
“For this reason, we feel media people are very critical when it comes to influencing some of the decisions from key authorities in terms of pushing the agendas on WASH,” Mwandira said.
Asked what prompted the media breakfast meeting, Mwandira said the meeting was organized to enhance the interaction among journalists who are passionate about writing WASH stories.
“The meeting was all about journalists who have got passion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Malawi and they got a forum called WASH Media Forum and we thought that we should provide them an opportunity to interact as media practitioners on issues of water and sanitation in Malawi,” he said.
He also said that WESNET is eager to motivate journalists to write more on WASH, adding there will be awards for best WASH story writers, among other things.
Commenting on the matter, WASH Media Forum Chairperson Raphael Mweninguwe applauded WESNET for organizing the media breakfast meeting.
“The meeting was important because it brought together a team of journalists from different media organizations that are passionate about writing WASH related stories.
“The breakfast meeting gave us a platform as journalists to interact and express some of the challenges that we are facing when we are doing our work,” Mweninguwe said.
