A protracted war of ideas is brewing in Malawi between health authorities and the big tobacco industry over the former's plans to re-in troduce a pesticide, Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT), as a way of controlling the spread of the killer disease, malaria.
Like in most parts of Africa, malaria is the biggest killer in Malawi, especially among pregnant women and children under the age of five.
According to the Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme, Dr. Storn Kabuluzi, there are at least 4 million reported cases of malaria in the country every year.
"Out of these, we record no fewer than 7,000 deaths on the average every year, mostly of pregnant women and children under the age of five," Kabuluzi said.
As a way of checking the spread of the disease, health ministers in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region (of which Malawi is a member) agreed to re-introduce DDT to control the breeding of mosquitoes that carry the disease parasites.
However, some years after the decision was taken, Malawi is yet to re-introduce DDT, as the all-powerful tobacco industry is jittery.
Felix Mkumba, Secretary General of the Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA) - an association that looks after the interests of tobacco growers in Malawi, said re-introducing DDT in the country would affect the industry.
"The suggestion to re-introduce DDT in Malawi did not go down well with us because it has serious implication on the industry," Mkumba said.
DDT was banned in many countries but after careful research by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it was found to be safe.
According to Mkumba, major buyers of Malawi tobacco, like the United States of America and Germany, do not want the leaf to be contaminated with DDT, adding that any trace of DDT in Malawi tobacco - no matter how insignificant - will result in cancellation of million of dollars worth of orders.
"Now you know the implications of such a scenario," he said.
The repercussions will indeed be dire, as according to figures from the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) - the industry's regulatory authority - an average of 50 billion Malawi Kwacha (roughly about US$ 340 million) is realised from tobacco sales every year in Malawi, making tobacco to contribute over 75 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.
Over and above that, tobacco contributes about 23 per cent of all tax collections in Malawi as well as about 30 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.
To cap it all, more than 80 per cent of Malawians are employed directly or indirectly in the tobacco industry.
TCC General Manager Godfrey Chapola said the statistics made tobacco a crop too delicate to tamper with.
"Tobacco is the engine of Malawi's economy," he summed it up.
The Director of Reproductive Health Services, Dr. Chisale Mhango, said discussions were still on-going with health authorities, trying to impress upon their agriculture counterparts that there was much ado about nothing when it comes to the r e-introduction of DDT in Malawi.
"The SADC ministers of health agreed that we should use DDT for in-door spraying to prevent the spread of malaria," Mhango said, emphasising that chances of the pesticide getting into contact with tobacco would be very minimal, if at all.
Mhango said South Africa and the US had used the pesticide to control the breeding of mosquitoes and the results had been impressive, adding that apart from being effective, DDT was also cheap.
"DDT has been found to be comparatively a cheaper way of checking the disease," he said.
However, while agreeing that DDT may be cheaper in the short-term, Mkumba of TAMA said its long-term consequencies on Malawi as a whole may not be as attractive.
"Our point is that, yes DDT could be cheaper but it will be costly because what it can do is to trigger some negative effects in the economy, like where our tobacco has been traced with cross-contamination of DDT, then we just lose a big market," Mkumba said.
So the debate rages on, with economic issues weighing about concerns of health.
Meanwhile, as the country's economy surges ahead, courtsey of tobacco, a pregnant woman and an under-five boy are breathing their last somewhere in Malawi, succumbing to malaria they might not have caught had DDT been allowed to join the battle against the disease known to comparatively kill more people than the more fabled HIV/AIDS.
Malaria Officer at the National Malaria Control Programme, Austin Albert Gumbo, said more than 40 per cent of all hospital admissions in the country were malari a-related.
According to Gumbo, "malaria kills more people than any other disease in Malawi, " adding "the high risk groups are pregnant women and children under the age of five."
That notwithstanding, the Ministry of Agriculture is still unwilling to risk the market of the country's only 'gold' with DDT.
Threat of death by malaria or not, in Malawi, tobacco is a sacred leaf.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Malawi Awards 3rd Licence to Mobile Phone Operator
Malawi’s Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), a body that regulates telecommunications in the country, has finally awarded an individual licence to Global Advanced Integrated Networks Limited (GAIN) to provide mobile (cellular) telecommunications services in the country.
Gain is the third mobile service provider alongside Celtel Malawi and Telekom Networks, and Malawians are hoping that the high cellular charges will be lower with a third competitor on the market.
According to MACRA spokesperson Zadziko Mankhambo, a new mobile service provider will contribute to the promotion of the development of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in both urban and rural areas of the country.
"The company will promote competition in the telecommunications industry, thereby increasing the quality and affordability of the telecommunication services for the benefit of all people in the country," he said.
Mankhambo added that MACRA’s Board has also reviewed the process leading to the award of the Second Network Fixed Line Operator (SNO) licence and is in the process of awarding the licence to Access Communications Limited (ACL).
Malawi has only one ground line operator called Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL).
Gain is the third mobile service provider alongside Celtel Malawi and Telekom Networks, and Malawians are hoping that the high cellular charges will be lower with a third competitor on the market.
According to MACRA spokesperson Zadziko Mankhambo, a new mobile service provider will contribute to the promotion of the development of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in both urban and rural areas of the country.
"The company will promote competition in the telecommunications industry, thereby increasing the quality and affordability of the telecommunication services for the benefit of all people in the country," he said.
Mankhambo added that MACRA’s Board has also reviewed the process leading to the award of the Second Network Fixed Line Operator (SNO) licence and is in the process of awarding the licence to Access Communications Limited (ACL).
Malawi has only one ground line operator called Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL).
Husband-and-wife teachers on another Malawi mission
A CAITHNESS teacher and her husband are currently spending their summer holidays helping to develop village schools in Malawi.
Maureen Miller, head teacher at Keiss Primary School and the former head at Canisbay, and Roger Bamfield, an advisory teacher for the autism outreach service in Dingwall, decided to spend five weeks in the African country as part of the Global Teachers Programme run by the international agency Link Community Development.
The couple, who undertook a similar venture last year, have almost reached the halfway point of their trip.
They have just completed over two weeks in the remote Matundu zone in the rural district of Dedza carrying out classroom observations, followed by training for all 30 teachers in the area's six schools.
Just like the Malawian teachers they have been working with, Maureen and Roger travelled around the district by bicycle on dirt roads, cycling up to 20 miles a day, apart from one visit to remote Jentcherere school when Maureen had to travel on the back of a motorcycle.
While there, they were living with two different host families. "Both of our families have said that we are now part of their history because we were the first Europeans ever to have worked and stayed in this remote part of Malawi," Roger said this week.
The couple are now working to support the group of 14 Scottish teachers who are involved in delivering in-service training to nearly 200 Malawian teachers in Dedza as part of the long-term educational improvement project LCD is running in partnership with two district departments of education in the country.
Maureen and Roger are due back home early next month.
Last summer they lived and worked in two village communities in Malawi – Namikango and Kanyama – where conditions were basic, with no running water or electricity. They worked with staff at their village schools, helping to develop leadership and teaching practices as well as supporting areas of curricular development.
At the time, Maureen described the experience as amazing and said she would "not have missed it for the world".
A few months after returning home, she and Roger received an honour for their work in Africa when they were awarded a certificate of Professional Recognition in Global Education by the General Teaching Council (GTC) for Scotland during a ceremony at the Scottish Parliament.
They were among 17 teachers who were recognised for their volunteering efforts in Malawi.
The couple were presented with their awards by May Ferries, convener of GTC Scotland, and Karen Gillon MSP, co-convener of the parliament's cross-party group for Malawi.
The Global Teachers Programme in Malawi supports the Malawi School Improvement Project which aims to improve schools and the standard of education offered to children there.
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Maureen Miller, head teacher at Keiss Primary School and the former head at Canisbay, and Roger Bamfield, an advisory teacher for the autism outreach service in Dingwall, decided to spend five weeks in the African country as part of the Global Teachers Programme run by the international agency Link Community Development.
The couple, who undertook a similar venture last year, have almost reached the halfway point of their trip.
They have just completed over two weeks in the remote Matundu zone in the rural district of Dedza carrying out classroom observations, followed by training for all 30 teachers in the area's six schools.
Just like the Malawian teachers they have been working with, Maureen and Roger travelled around the district by bicycle on dirt roads, cycling up to 20 miles a day, apart from one visit to remote Jentcherere school when Maureen had to travel on the back of a motorcycle.
While there, they were living with two different host families. "Both of our families have said that we are now part of their history because we were the first Europeans ever to have worked and stayed in this remote part of Malawi," Roger said this week.
The couple are now working to support the group of 14 Scottish teachers who are involved in delivering in-service training to nearly 200 Malawian teachers in Dedza as part of the long-term educational improvement project LCD is running in partnership with two district departments of education in the country.
Maureen and Roger are due back home early next month.
Last summer they lived and worked in two village communities in Malawi – Namikango and Kanyama – where conditions were basic, with no running water or electricity. They worked with staff at their village schools, helping to develop leadership and teaching practices as well as supporting areas of curricular development.
At the time, Maureen described the experience as amazing and said she would "not have missed it for the world".
A few months after returning home, she and Roger received an honour for their work in Africa when they were awarded a certificate of Professional Recognition in Global Education by the General Teaching Council (GTC) for Scotland during a ceremony at the Scottish Parliament.
They were among 17 teachers who were recognised for their volunteering efforts in Malawi.
The couple were presented with their awards by May Ferries, convener of GTC Scotland, and Karen Gillon MSP, co-convener of the parliament's cross-party group for Malawi.
The Global Teachers Programme in Malawi supports the Malawi School Improvement Project which aims to improve schools and the standard of education offered to children there.
Printer friendly version
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