Lilongwe Water Board rebuffs Area 18 family on K95mil compensation over sewage horror

Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has rebuffed one of the families in Area 18 affected by the sewage polluted water when they demanded compensation of K95 million.

Lawyer GD Liwimbi and Partners wrote the board seeking compensation of K95 million for a family of Khama Matupa, Elinat Matupa, Thandiwe Longwe, Beatrice Njiragoma and two minors who  were demanding K15 million each while the other minor demands K20 million.

They victims argued that it is “degrading, disgusting, noxious, and incomprehensible to make human beings consume human excreta” through the water supplied by LWB as a result of negligence.

According to the letter, the six demanding compensation suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea, weakness, fever and abdominal pains.

“Clinical and laboratory assessments discovered that our clients were under severe bacterial infection consistent with severe bacterial gastroenteritis,” the letter from lawyers to LWB reads in part.

It said the six were treated with antibiotics and metronidazole and that the minors were admitted to the hospital for two days where they were put on intravenous fluids and antibiotics.

But LWB through its  lawyers Lilongwe and Company has flatly denied any liability.

The Matupa family say they will drag the board to court for  inhumane and degrading water contamination in the capital city’s township.

Lawyers’ Forum for Human Rights executive director Chancy Mwalubunju is also taking a different legal action on behalf of other affected residents.

The affected residents presented a petition to government in which they asked for compensation.