A borehole rehabilitation project has repaired about 200 boreholes in rural areas of Lilongwe amid increased number of non-working boreholes in the district which force women to walk long distances to search for potable water.
Team leader for Pacific Limited borehole rehabilitation project James Nsusa disclosed that they are currently working in Lilongwe’s four Constituencies of Lilongwe North, North East, Msozi South and Nkhoma Mpenu adding that so far about 200 boreholes have already been renovated and 100 more are expected to be renovated by the end of this month.
A visit to the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Chimutu in Lilongwe’s north east constituency revealed that about 58 boreholes in the area had broken down a situation which has made women in the area to be walking a distance of close to 3 kilometres in search of water
Group Village Headman (GVH) Tchoka of Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimutu in Lilongwe North East constituency said the scarcity of water in his area has forced women to be spending much of their time searching for water a development which he said is counterproductive.
Secret Kaziputa who hails from Village Headman Kachimphi, Traditional Authority Chimutu in Lilongwe disclosed that she wakes up at 2 am every day to fetch water.
“The problem of water scarcity has reached worrisome levels in our area. We have to wake up early in the morning every day to fetch water. When we go in the morning we come back in the afternoon. Sometimes we just resort to fetch water from the streams,” said Kaziputa.
Efforts to get Government’s stand on whether it intends to embark on massive borehole rehabilitation across the country after it has been observed that a number of boreholes in the country are broken down, proved futile as authorities at the department of water and irrigation services kept on pushing to each other for their reaction.
However, Member of Parliament for Lilongwe North Constituency Monica Chayang’anamuno whose area the Pacific team has already renovated about 60 boreholes said Government expects the local communities to assume the responsibility of maintaining their boreholes instead of relying upon Government or MPs.
She therefore expressed gratitude to Pacific Limited for having interest in renovating boreholes in her area.
She said it was a dream come true for people in her constituency when all boreholes were fixed within a month.
“I salute the Pacific team and truly it has Malawians at heart, such a gesture is rare and I pray that Pacific under the leadership of Faizal Aboo will continue to help other areas in the Country” .
Pacific borehole rehabilitation project started in 2015 and so far it has rehabilitated over 3150 boreholes across the country.
It is believed that one borehole can serve at least 300 families and can save a family 1 hour of searching for water every day.
