Clean, Hot Water Installed at All eSwatini Clinics

LOBAMBA - For more than a year, nurse Lindiwe Magongo has seen to the needs of 600 patients per week at her small clinic near the capital of eSwatini, the nation formerly known as Swaziland.

And until very recently, she’s fought both ordinary health issues and the global coronavirus pandemic without the most basic health care tool: clean, hot water. Doctors say handwashing, hygiene and sanitation are key to curbing the spread of illness. The coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, has claimed nearly 700 lives in this nation of just over one million people. But before the pandemic hit, 82 percent of clinics in this small, landlocked southern African nation lacked this vital tool. In recent months, a multinational initiative has installed an outdoor solar-powered handwashing station in every clinic. On a recent weekday, Magongo beamed at the new handwashing station at the gate of her clinic. Dozens of emaSwati, as the people of eSwatini are called, had lined up before the clinic opened, and were now filing in after washing their hands.