LWB to start rationing water in Lilongwe: Supply would get worse unless Khato or Diamphwe projects rolls out
Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) chief executive officer Alfonso Chikuni has said they will start rationing water in Lilongwe and warned that the water supply would get progressively worse in the coming years.
Chikuni said there is low water levels in its reservoirs and that “there is high probability” for rationing of water by November.
He said the LWB needs new alternative water sources developed to complement those from its two dams on Lilongwe River
Chikuni said they expect either the Salima- Lilongwe Lake Malawi water project or the Diamphwe Dam Project to be rolled out.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe has meanwhile said government has signed a deal with a financier of the K400 billion Lilongwe-Salima Project, effectively putting on course the project that faced several hurdles
Gondwe said government have discussed with the financier that the contractor Khato Civils identified and have reached an agreement.
He said Khato Civils identified a financier, Trissag Espanola of South Africa, but headquartered in London, to finance the K400 billion project.
“An agreement has been entered that 35 percent of the loan will be granted without interest,” Gondwe said as quoted in the local press.
He said the loan would no longer require approval from IMF as it was not a sovereign guarantee anymore, but rather, a bank guarantee.
LWB’s initial project of the Diamphwe Multi-purpose Dam Project, which was earmarked to avert the looming water crisis, hit a snag after the World Bank withdrew its financial backing.
I doubt if the information that the Finance Minister is providing is correct. Project financing starts with involvement of both the implementer and Government. In this case it is only Government side talking of identifying a financier with the CEO for the Board not being firm on this information. Let us wait and see: we may be heading same direction as that of gensets.
Vito simapolojekiti awiriwo ai. Vuto ndi kubedwa Kwa madzi ndi MCP. A Chilima sanadzudzulepo khalidwe la MCP lonyansali mpaka Lero. Mwinatu naonso ndi akhalidwe loteretu.
This is one of the tricks DPP Govt uses to siphone our money to fund campaign or enrich themselves. They inflate project cost so that they share the balance with the contractor. They create a shoqtage so that they hasten procurement & flout procedures, the likes of maizegate, raising of Escom tariffs, & now they r targeting LWB coz CSO’s anawaphumitsa now they found another bank to borrow thats why akufuna adzitseka madzi kuti opusawo adzidandaula kuti ma CSO analetsa madzi omwe akusowa pomwe LWB akutseka dala madzi monga momwe akuthimitsira dala magetsiwa. Akuluakulu APM atangotha kukumana ndi akulu a… Read more »
Thank you government let Khato do the job and save us in Lilongwe
Guys koma ine ndimaona ngati Ndale tikanazisiyako kumbari pang’ono anthu tikuvutikatu nkhani ya Madzi, Khato anakayilora kuti iyambe ntchito tikuzichedwetsera chitukuko kwambiri zoona anthu tiyambetso kumwa Madzi achimbudzi..? Nsanje ikanachoka, Ndege ija anagulitsa koma ndalama zake sitinapindule a Malawi. Koma pamadzipa ndichitukuko chooneka ichi olo atati akuba koma bola Madzi afike kuti anthu a Mu Lilongwe mwina tipumeko pa Nkhani iyi….siine wa Ndale koma ndimayang’ana chopindulitsa Dziko lonse
Judging by his photograph accompanying this article Mr Chikuni seems to find it amusing that water rationing is to begin in Lilongwe. We have regular power outages and now have water shortages to look forward to. How does the President reconcile these failures with his speeches in the USA on his management of the economy? Successive governments have seriously failed to balance the country’s infra-structure with its rising population. Now we are paying the cost of this failure. Who is responsible for planning and up-dating the essential services so that these problems can be avoided?
Water shortages and rationing, especially from next year, should squarely be blamed on those that opposed the Salima-Lilongwe Water Project. Lilongwe City will likely face the same fate as the City of Cape Town.
Thank you bwana president and the gogo Gondwe for doing away with the IMF/World Bank and found new ways of assisting Malawians. Let’s move on and have water in Lilongwe. Bravo Khato for coming up with that idea of identifying a financier. That’s the way we can develop Malawi ourselves.
Reality of life on the ground, totally different from what the out-of-ideas Mutharika is celebrating about IMF stats.
Yeah maybe that’s true, mulhomwe, and i don’t think ndiiwe mulhomwe weniweni. Kodi project ya salima lilongwe lake malawi, amene akuyichedwetsa kapena apangitsa ku a world bank achite pull out ndi ndani, ssinu otsutsa ndi ma CSO? Ndiye pano zafika pothina mukufunanso kutukwana boma? aaah ndatopa nanu anthunu tsopano, nsanje zachuluka pamalawi.
iweyo pathass, you are a fool, we dont have a problem with the project, we have a problem with the way u thieves want to steal project funds OK, U DUMBASS CADET
Which reality on the ground are you talking about when government made a programme and people of evil minds frustrated it by court orders.Please don’t play with peoples life when it comes to water,God will punish you.
Mulomwe, probably you are not aware that the IMF is the one frustrating plans by the Mutharika government to pump water from Lake Malawi and increase capacity so that we do not have low water supply in Lilongwe and surrounding districts in the future. If the water problem is not sorted now, thanks to IMF, World Bank and our misguided CSOs, we will have water shortage the way we are experiencing electricity blackouts. The government is trying to do the right thing but afiti osatifunira zabwino achuluka.
thieves, why is the project cost going down abit by bit, you over charged so you can steal
The opposition and CSOs do not wish this country well. They have frustrated this water project which is a vital one for Lilongwe. They want us to suffer so that they say the government has failed.
Which opposition? Not MCP ofcource. It’s the misguided CSOs and other minority parties analetsa khato project. Pano bwezi titamaliza tikuimba lokoma. We don’t love our country anthufe basi. Let Chakwera take the country before we all die
We are talking of water which is life.Money cannot buy life.Those that are against this project are cursed!
Pathfinder, Noxy and Paweni – That is absolutely nonsense you are spouting about. You are all very daft, small minded persons. It is all about poor governance and poor leadership, demonstrated by the people in power (Muthuarika and DPP), which has brought entire systems in Malawi into the abyss. When there is poverty of governance and leadership in a country, there will always be a cascading effect. The economic and political systems don’t work in silos. Politics and economics work hand in hand – you mess the politics, you mess the economy. Water shortages in Lilongwe are primarily due poor… Read more »