Chakwera caught pants down: MCP illegally connected water to its building

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Malawi Congress Party MCP

Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has fined Malawi Congress Party K106 million as penalty for illegal connection.

According to sources from LLW, MCP had illegal connection at headquarters in Lilongwe and LWB disconnected water supply on Thursday.

Malawi Congress Party MCP
MCP dodging water bills

The information further suggests that MCP had two water connections and the one which was legal accumulated a bill of K6.8 million which the party failed to settle.

LLW acting Public Relations Officer Maurice Nkawihe confirmed the the news but could not comment further as he is reportedly out of office for other duties.

MCP Deputy Secretary General Elsenhower Mkaka dismissed the claims saying the what the board calls ‘illegal connection’ is the fire extinguishing system they connected on their own some years ago.

MCP dodging water bills

“The board’s connection was specially made at the premises. What they call illegal connection is the fire extinguishing system which the board itself connected at the place where there meter is. Only the hose reels were connected to this, more like a hydrant so much so that whenever there was a disconnection all the taps were dry save the fire extinguishing system,” said Mkaka, adding his surprise to the board’s actions describing the fire extinguisher connection as illegal.

“The board has been seeing this whenever they came to take meter readings. We are surprised that what they did themselves and have been seeing all these years, now they have chosen to call it illegal connection. What we know about illegal connections is that they are hidden and kept away from the public eye,” said Mkaka.

On the bills that MCP is supposed to settle, Mkaka said they yet to discuss with the board to register their view. However, he outlined that MCP started settling the K6.8 million bill.

“We are yet to meet the board to understand their point of view.
As for the K6.8 million bill, we were not receiving bills. When they sent us a disconnection notice, we went to the board to reach an agreement as to how we would settle this. As a matter of fact two weeks ago we paid K2 million and we expected to pay K1.8 million in the coming week as the agreement we made with the board was that we should at least pay K3 million and finish the rest in chunks,” he said.

MCP headquarters is ine of the oldest structures in the capital, Lilongwe, situated just opposite the Reserve Bank of Malawi at City Centre.