Mzuzu-(MaraviPost)—Member of Parliament for Mzimba North East Constituency, Catherine Gotani Hara, has expressed her plea to Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to consider re-demarcating her constituency as one way of ensuring even distribution of developmental projects to the constituents.
Speaking at the weekend when she graced the donation of Covid-19 preventive materials by Matuli Community Development Organsation to Matuli Health Centre in the constituency, Gotani Hara, who is also the Speaker of the national assembly, said because the constituency is too big, resources like the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) do not sufficiently cater for all areas around the constituency.
Hara’s call follows the recent announcement by MEC that it has plans to review the size of some constituencies in the country.
“If it is possible for Electoral Commission to consider us in terms of demarcating this constituency, I think it will do a lot of good to the citizens of this constituency, because at the end of the day, it’s people who are looking for development and if resources that are given for this constituency are not enough, it is the people who are suffering,” said Hara.
According to a nurse in charge at Matuli Health Centre, Fanny Mbuzi, the facility has no electricity and it has only one borehole which is also shared with members around the community, a situation which makes it hard for health workers at the facility to comfortably serve patients in the maternity ward.
Mbuzi said: “We have got one borehole which is used by the community as well as the patients in the hospital. So, it’s quite hard for us to use the water in the maternity. Maybe a guardian wants to fetch water for a patient, it’s quite hard to do so.”
Meanwhile, Matuli Community Development Organisation Chairperson, Stanley Nyirenda, said as an organisation, their aim is to focus on education, health, agriculture, natural resources conservation and poverty alleviation in order to complement efforts by the government.
“Our aim is to initiate processes that will make sure that these areas I have mentioned, just a few of it, to really move forward in terms of developing this particular area,” Nyirenda said.
The facility, which is currently serving over 12, 000 people, was officially opened in 2011.
