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Work for the controversial district hospital pledged to Malawi in July, 2002 by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi finally took off the ground on Wednesday with the laying of the foundation stone at the proposed site at Kameza, Blantyre.
The 300-bed hospital expected to cover 8,800 square metres, will cost about MK1.5 billion and will take 19 months to complete.
At the event, Health Minister Yusuf Mwawa signed a memorandum of understanding with Libya’s assistant secretary for International Cooperation Mohammed Siala.
Mwawa said all the logistics as well as the construction of the hospital will be taken care of by the Libyan government.
“The hospital will not only be built by Libyan constructors but they will also provide beds, beddings and other equipment needed to run it. They will also maintain it for the first year,” said Mwawa.
He added that the hospital is a long term investment which will help government in its quest to provide good health to people in the country.
At the moment there is a group of engineers from Libya, who were also present at the ceremony, working out the modalities of how they are going to proceed with their work.
General secretary for the Libyan constructing company, African Project Authority (APA) Mabrouk Zahmoul, said they will be working in different phases with the first phase being assessment of the land for the building which will be done by surveyors from government.
“We are here for 20 days to assess the land. When the real project takes off, we will be working with other local contractors,” he said.
The hospital is a ray of hope for the one million population in Blantyre district which, apart from 19 public health centres and two CHAM hospitals, has only one main referral hospital, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.
The hospital is normally congested as it caters for the whole of the Southern Region.
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