Communities from Dedza North have appealed to government, organizations and people of goodwill to assist them with safe and potable water to address problems of sanitation and hygiene in the area.
The communities have also asked for improvement to their road network.
According to Saide Sale, one of the women residing in Mayani Village in Traditional Authority Tambala in the district, lack of access to clean and potable water has had a huge impact on the lives of girls and women in the area.
“We have one borehole and it is in Mayani Market. We always have long queues and sometimes women fight one another as the scramble for water heats up,” said Sale.
“We are falling to balance household chores, farming and fetch water. We spend hours at the borehole and we are now forced to use water from unsafe sources,” she added.
A Motorcycle kabaza operator Nefrani Liwera pleaded with authorities at the Capital Hill to consider upgrading the road network in the area, saying the current network poses as a death trap and is negatively affecting their business.
“We are forced to increase fares due to bad state of the road and mostly we are breaking road traffic regulations by, among others, overloading and overspreading in order to achieve our targets,” added Liwera.
Member of Parliament for the area, Savel Kafwafwa, lamented that his constituency is amongst the biggest five constituencies yet the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) has increased its boundary, making it bigger than its original size.