BWB setting up to manage sewage system through Malawi Water Sanitation Project
With funding from the World Bank, Blantyre Water Board (BWB) will migrate into Blantyre water and sewage service provider in the turnaround strategies the parastatal is undergoing.
The was announced on Wednesday during an engagement with industrial customers at a breakfast meeting at Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel where the water service provider updated some of its key developments in the turnaround strategies.
Though they contribute 30% of the revenue that BWB generates, the industrial customers are considered as all-important client as they consume a lot of water — thus BWB Chief Executive Officer Robert Hanjahanja said in their 360 degrees engagements with various stakeholders, they thought it very salient to include the industrial players.
During a presentation, BWB unveiled that the water sanitation project’s grant is at US$145 million and is spanned in four phases of which the first is the water supply improvement with a target of pumping over 230 million liters of water to satisfy the City’s increase in population.
The second is waste water management in liaison with Blantyre City Council and the Ministry of Water & Sanitation to create the water and sewage service.
The water supply improvement strategy is through upgrading of infrastructure such as having pipelines with bigger diameters, improving on pumping equipment at Walkers Ferry.
BWB has been engaging with various stakeholders including the media, domestic customers, Councillors, the police as well as religious and community leaders on its latest developments of the turnaround strategies.
Director of Distribution & Commerce, Verson Kafodya, BWB unveiled that from its customer base of over 74,000 connections, about 100 are industries and though they are few, they are high consumers as they contribute over K500 million towards their monthly revenue.
Chief Executive Hanjahanja said as they are in the middle of a turnaround strategy through which they are changing so many things in the way they do business, one of the most important is to engage with customers, saying: “Feedback is critical for anybody, let alone any organization, and our industrial customers are the most critical for us, because they provide the largest amount of revenue.”
He added that they also needed to be appraised of the customers’ concerns and challenges in order to move forward together.
BWB also announced that it launched its digital customer service named Madzi App — through which consumers can be assisted on their bill enquiry, token enquiry, fault reporting, complaint filing, BWB services, bill payments, notices, tariff schedules and several others.
Meanwhile, BWB also appraised the industrial customers that they are in cognizance that some of them are managing boreholes. They were made aware that — according to the law — they need to have themselves connected to BWB as it has the capacity to do so.
Hanjahanja said the law says, if a water board is able to supply, nobody can be granted licence by the National Water Resources Authority but where it is necessary to do so, then BWB can facilitate to have them licensed.
Thus the industrial consumers, most of them are food and beverage processors, were strongly encouraged to rely on BWB as most of them sorround the water service provider catchment area.
Mike Mavuto Missi — who represented Zagaf Transport and Cement Products at the breakfast meeting — raised a point that they are forced to construct boreholes because sometimes BWB fails to meet their water demand.
He said their water consumption is very huge because they deal with fuel tankers that need cleaning up but there are times the supply from BWB “is too little” for them.
However, Missi applauded BWB for organising the meeting, saying it gave them an opportunity to open up on challenges they face in order to come up with solutions going forward.
Just on Tuesday, during an engagement with Chiradzulu District Council officials and other stakeholders, National Water Resources Authority expressed concern over illegal borehole drilling in cities and towns as research shows that most of the waters drawn from boreholes in such areas are biologically contaminated and not fit for consumption.
The National Water Resources Authority sensitised the Council officials to take an active role in discouraging borehole drilling by drillers that have no authorization.
The Authority sampled water points across major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu, where it was revealed that 75% of the boreholes had biologically contaminated water and emphasised that the Councils too have the mandate to manage and regulate water resources in their jurisdictions.
The Authority said it receive concerns from local authorities on illegal borehole drilling by organisations that usually bypass Councils — thus the engagement to offer support and equip them with the necessary tools and information to deal with the illegal drilling and construction of boreholes.—Additional reporting by Lydia Maganga, MANA
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