Alcohol could be banned in Malawi: Govt urged to control beer consumption

With the way consumption of beer is becoming the order of the day for many Malawians, concerned organizations could be pushing government to ban alcohol, if their recent calls for government to adopt the Malawi National Alcohol Policy come incessantly and are anything to go by.

Government has been asked to quickly adopt the Malawi National Alcohol Policy to help control abuse among underage youth in the country.

National coordinator for Malawi National Alcohol Policy Alliance who is also executive director for Drug Fight Malawi Nelson Zakeyu said this during a sensitization meeting in Mzimba district.

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According to Zakeyu, government should adopt the policy – which has stalled for three years – to regulate consumption, marketing, and distribution of beer in order to save underage youths from abuse.

“We want government to help us strengthen the Malawi alcohol policy alliance and advocate speedy adoption of the policy to protect our youth,” he said.

Deputy Chairperson for civil society network in the district who is also project coordinator for Malawi Carer, Hendrix Mphangamo, said once the policy is passed it will among other things reduce gender based violence in communities.

The meeting was conducted with members from different stakeholders in order to raise awareness on the draft national alcohol policy.

The national alcohol policy was drafted by Drug Fight Malawi and other organizations after noticing excessive abuse of alcohol by youth in the country.

Some of the countries where beer is banned include Bangladesh, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.