K400bn Lilongwe-Salima water project in limbo, financiers reluctant

A celebrated K400 billion Lilongwe-Salima Water Supply Project’s future still hangs in the dark as compensation claimants are now pressing for their money.

The ambitious project is to pump water from Lake Malawi in Salima to the dryland, the Capital City and other surrounding areas as lasting solution to persistent water shortages in the fast growing and expanding, Lilongwe.

Ministry of Finance spokesperson Davies Saddo said the government is still in talks with financiers.

“The silence might be there but we are sorting out several issues, we are looking into a issues of finances and administrative in nature,” said Saddo.

He said the project will kick off as soon as everything is cleared.

Khato Civil Engineers were picked to implement the project, the signature development for President Peter Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.

Meanwhile, several people have come forward, seeking compensation for their land which the government took for the project.

The project was supposed to kick off almost three years ago.

Former Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe is on record saying Cabinet already approved that the loan Lilongwe Water Board (LWB), the client in the project, obtains through Khato Civils would be guaranteed. Thus, he said there would be no need for a Loan Authorisation Bill in Parliament.

Gondwe added that government would agree with LWB on the amount to be borrowed with Treasury guarantee.

LWB and the contractor Khato Civil had signed the financing agreement with Trissag Espanola of South Africa, but Gondwe is on record as  saying that some of the terms in the contract were not concessionary.

The Salima-Lilongwe Water Supply Project,has been rocked by a series of controversies, including how the contractor was identified and it also faced resistance from environmentalists who demanded that the project should have an environmental impact assessment study before it takes off.