Southern Region Water Board has admitted that it is facing huge challenges in supplying adequate water in most areas as existing schemes have outlived their design life and are unable to meet the present demand.
According to the Board, siltation of water sources due to deforestation has also hampered efforts by the Board to effectively supply water to it’s customers.
However, expectations are high that customers will soon have a new lease of life following plans by the statutory corporation to upgrade some existing water schemes but also to establish new water schemes.
According to the Board’s Public Relations Officer, Ritta Makwangwala, the project will enhance service delivery by the Board.
”The project will enable SRWB to reach out to a lot of people in terms of coverage, thereby improving access to portable water,” Makwangwala.
For instance, in the Liwode-Balaka project, the Board will use Lake Malombe at Changali as its intake, enabling people along Liwonde DMI corridor to have access to clean and portable water, benefitting more than 137 00 people by year 2040.
In a similar project, the Board will also embark on Ulongwe water supply project in Balaka where the Board expects to be supplying underground water to a population of more than 12,000 people by the year 2040.
Reacting to the development, Balaka District Water Monitoring Assistant, Emmanuel Nkhonjera, has hailed the project saying it will reduce the challenges people have been experiencing.
The Board also intends to upgrade and extend water supply schemes in Mwanza apart from establishing new water schemes at Fatima in Nsanje,Thondwe in Zomba,and Zalewa market in Neno.
The Government of Malawi is financing the project with a US$65.5 million funding from the Export-Import Bank of India.
Southern Region Water Board was established in 1995 and has the mandate of providing water to the whole Southern Region apart from Blantyre city.
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