Cama demands BWB to provide alternative water supply
The Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) has demanded Blantyre Water Board (BWB) to immediately provide water bowsers to the residents of Blantyre due to its failure to provide water as a result of the continued inefficiencies which have resulted in denying many consumers to have no access to water.
Blantyre city residents have been subjected to prolonged water supply interruption due to failure by the supplier to improve its services and due to old system which is incapable of meeting the demand.
In a statement signed by CAMA’s Executive Director, John Kapito, the consumer rights body said BWB has failed to live up to its promises of improved services.
“Your inefficiencies and continued failure to supply water to consumers in Blantyre is not new and the excuses are not new, not long ago consumers went through similar experiences and you made the very same assurances that once the water works improvements are done water scarcity will never happen again and now come 2020 you are telling Blantyre consumers the very same lies and excuses,” argued Kapito.
Kapito further argued that BWB’s continued inefficiencies were against its own Customer Service Charter.
“We are therefore, demanding you to continuously provide water bowsers until such a time when your inefficiencies have been sorted out. It is wrong and unacceptable for you to pass on your inefficiencies to Consumers at a time when we also have Covid-19 pandemic that demands usage of more water than before.”
CAMA has since demanded BWB to provide water bowsers to mitigate the water supply challenge, adding the service provider should make public the time and centres where the water bowsers can be accessed.
“It is important for you to treat water as a necessity and life and that it must be a product that you must begin to treat with a lot of sensitivity and ensure continued supply at all times we wonder whether you know how crucial your business is to the Consumers of Blantyre,” added Kapito.
Recently, Vice-President Saulos Chilima also gave BWB a deadline of October 2 2020 to resolve water supply challenges in the commercial capital, saying erratic water supply is unacceptable.
In recent weeks, residents of some areas in Blantyre, including Ndirande, Namiyango, part of Kanjedza, Zingwangwa, Machinjiri, Chilobwe and Green Corner have been going days without water supply.
Mr Kapito, we cannot live on water on a bouser. The most important thing for you is to ask BWB to quickly fix the problems behind this erratic water supply.
Kapito is completely off base on this.
To provide context – Malawi has been a victim of rampant corruption for decades now that has brought the country to it’s knees. On top of that we are in the midst of a global pandemic, the like of which the world has never seen before. Most countries the worldover have literally shutdown down their economies and people have been stuck in the houses since Jan/Feb.
Well done CAMA on this. My comment is on a different issue. Kindly advocate for disclosure of prices from all services providers and traders. We should do the same way Zimbabwe does. All vendors by law are required to display prices of their goods even in local markets. For service providers like BWB we also need to know much they are charging per cu.m of water. These prices are kept to themselves because no one actually ask for them. That should be your first constructive assignment not just bubbling.