Only a small tip of the boundary stone submerged at the mouth of Mbugwe River is visible even from ten metres away.
Inundated with waters brought by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in March this year, Lake Chilwa has broken its unstable banks.
Mbugwe, extending from Mozambique, has not been among the six most prominent rivers that perennially flow into Malawi’s second-largest lake.
Today, the mouth of the river has widened to the length of nearly two football pitches, making crossing to either side a tough task.
“During times like this, we could cross the river on dry sand. Vehicles could easily ferry people and goods across the dry river,” Estere Blake, from Muluma in Mozambique, says.
Her village lies along her country’s border with Malawi, and her family accesses most social services such as markets and healthcare in neighbouring Phalombe District.
On an early August afternoon, Blake and her one-year-old daughter are on the Malawi side of the slow-moving river waiting for a rowed boat to take them to a dock from where they will proceed home.
Storm’s health hazards
She admits that while Cyclone Freddy, whose impact was less felt in Mozambique compared to Malawi, due to the former Portuguese colony’s timely preparedness, significantly lashed her village, destruction to life and property was minimal.
“We were alert,” Blake says, as she skims through her daughter’s health passport bearing a Mozambique government insignia and name.
A time-honoured arrangement between the governments of her country and Malawi makes it possible for citizens in border areas to access healthcare services across the international boundaries.
The nearest health centre in her country is at a location known as Mikanyela, which is several kilometres further than Nambazo Health Centre in Phalombe.
So, Blake and several of her compatriots choose to cross into Malawi to access healthcare services because that is convenient.
“Of course, the flooding of the river has added extra costs to our trips to the hospital in Malawi,” she says while feeling the body temperature of her daughter.
Familiar condition
At Nambazo Health Centre, Blake’s daughter, Chika, was diagnosed with diarrhoea, which the mother of three believes she contracted within an outbreak triggered by Cyclone Freddy.
She admits that her area recorded sanitation-related diseases such as cholera after the storm, recorded as the strongest to hit the Southern Hemisphere, had fallen off.
A United Nations volunteer working in Mozambique noted that the heavy rains due to the cyclone resulted in widespread deficiency in basic sanitation and worsened the cholera outbreak.
“I have been leading campaigns to educate the population about proper hygiene practices, water safety and the importance of seeking immediate medical attention.
“Our focus has been on raising awareness among students and teachers… to prevent direct contamination through the consumption of contaminated water or food,” Ana Paula Machinha said after the cyclone.
Mozambicans from villages like Blake’s largely relied on Malawi to access basic health services. They still do.
“Without Nambazo Health Centre, I would have lost my five-year-old son to cholera. I rushed with him to the hospital in time for treatment.
“We were lucky to find a waiting boat which ferried us across Mbugwe River,” Rebecca Antonio, a Mozambique national, says.
Lingering problem
Councillor for Chilwa Ward, on the other side of the river, in Zomba District, Orasio Mahata, argues that having a health facility in his area would significantly lessen challenges people there face.
Mahata says the under-five clinic at a location called Lungazi within Chilwa Ward does not optimally serve people from its vicinity.
“The population has grown now. Mozambicans too rely on this side because their nearest health facility is far away,” the councillor says.
He is worried that as the impacts of the exceptionally long-lived and deadly storm linger on, the poor who need to cross to the other side to access medical services continue having their lives in peril.
Even those referred to Zomba Central Hospital from Mahata’s area are supposed to cross Mbugwe River to connect to the referral facility through Phalombe.
“It is a big crisis. On the other side is Lake Chilwa and crossing it needs a lot of money. Many poor families cannot afford it,” the councillor says.
Growing anxiety
In the meantime, as rains return for the 2023-34 season, anxiety is growing among people who cross Mbugwe River to access social services on the other side.
Their reprieve could be in the announcement by weather experts that this season’s rains are likely to be normal with patches of dry spells.
Something like Cyclone Freddy, which traversed the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks in February and March this year, to bring record amounts of rainfall in Southern Africa, would bring deadlier impacts.
The cyclone’s rains brought sudden, violent and destructive flash floods and landslides that left over 1,200 people dead and displaced more than 650,000 others in Malawi.
“The storm has significantly exposed the poor to livelihood shocks,” Mahata says.
