By Pemphero Malimba
For 60-year-old Lawrence Luwanika of Mwalija Village, Traditional Authority Malemia, Zomba District, November 2023 will be unforgettable.
On the 18th, his last-born son fell in his house and fractured his arm.
The next morning, Luwanika and wife went to Domasi Health Centre with their son for medical help only to be referred to Zomba Central Hospital.
“We were told that proper medication could be provided at Zomba Central Hospital because the health centre was not well equipped. Unfortunately, we were not even given pain killers which our son needed the most at the time as he was in pain,” Luwanika narrates.
He says there was no ambulance either to ferry them to the central hospital which is at a stretch of about 32 kilometres.
The hospital is not fully operational. It was planned to be operating as a district hospital for Zomba since there is none in the district.
With Zomba having a population of over 700,000 people, the new community hospital could have been serving many.
Construction works at the facility started in 2013 but stalled at about 65 percent completion rate.
They were planned to be done within 80 weeks but they have not been completed, about 10 years down the line.
Contractors reportedly left the site, where structures like an administration building, pediatrics ward, general wards, X-Ray building, maternity and delivery wards, operating theatre, laboratory and outpatient department have been constructed.
The facility is just an example of the many staled public projects. They include Machinga Community Technical College, Likwenu Community Based Care Centre in Machinga and Aquatic Sports Complex at Kamuzu Institute for Sports in Lilongwe.
Such delays are a mockery to crafters of the country’s long-term development plan, the Malawi 2063, who aspire to see Malawi become a middle income, wealthy and self-reliant economy.
One of the pillars in the Malawi 2063 stipulates that the nation’s goal is to attain universal health coverage with quality, equitable and affordable healthcare for all Malawians.
It also stipulates that, in the education sector, the country will be able to “make it a priority for every child to go through Early Childhood Education and make it compulsory for every citizen to attain at least 12 years of formal education and every constituency shall have well equipped and staffed primary and secondary schools, not forgetting technical and vocational training centres.
On the sidelines of a tour to one of the stalled projects, Principal Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Health Bestone Chisamile said payment issues have contributed to delays in completion of Domasi Community Hospital.
It is fully financed by the government and over K2 billion is needed for its completion.
“When the ministry was making a presentation to the Public Sector Investment Programme, we indicated that, in the next financial year, what is important for the ministry is to ensure that we finish outstanding projects,” Chisamile said.
Machinga Likwenu Constituency Youth Parliamentarian Linda Namuse challenged authorities to expedite the process of completing the hospital.
NPC Board Chairperson Richard Mkandawire said the commission remained committed to ensuring timely completion of such projects.
Mkandawire said the commission would engage the government on how best to complete the projects. “We do not want projects to be abandoned,” Mkandawire said.
Principal Secretary for Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Services in the Office of the President and cabinet Anjimile Mtila said the government was committed to completing all projects regardless.
It is clear that while the country desperately desires to move out of the abyss of poverty, any further delays in competing public projects take the 18 million-population backwards.
