Executive Director for Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) George Jobe has called for the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) from water in order for the country to fight Covid-19 better.

He made the call as Malawi joined the global community on 22 March to commemorate World Water Day.

Jobe said with Covid-19 it has become apparent that water is not just a commodity but medicine as well hence the need for authorities to consider scrapping off VAT from water.

He added that access to clean water is a challenge in both rural and urban areas making it difficult to fight Covid-19.

“We acknowledge that in some areas people still use rivers as a source of water and we also have places where there is no tap water, we have also had cases where supply of water has been intermittent and that affects the Covid-19 fight.”

The World Water Day is being commemorated under the theme ‘Valuing water’.