Simbi’s new innovation in delivering Lilongwe-Salima water project
Khato Civils, a company awarded a Lilongwe-Salima water project, is geared to execute the much-awaited project to tap water from Salima to Lilongwe with a reduced cost by $102 million (about K73 billion).
Lilongwe Water Board awarded Khato a K400 billion Lilongwe-Salima water project but the company has cut the cost of the project from US$400 million dollars to US$315 million.
Social commentator Stanley Onjezani Kenani said in the absence of competitive bidding, it was difficult to ascertain whether the reduction is a fair price.
However, Khato Civils chairperson Simbi Phiri justifies the reduction of costs due to the new innovation in delivering the project.
His company has brought new equipment that can do the job swiftly.
The Lilongwe-Salima Water Supply Project has always stirred controversy as the project, for years, failed to roll out.
Simbi Phiri at one point blamed some politicians during the administration of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and some government officials, saying they were bent at frustrating the project for their own selfish reasons.
But the new Tonse Alliance administration has resolved the bottlenecks and allowed the project to be start in earnest which has seen the two sides held a virtual meeting where government was represented by Ministry of Finance, Department of Environmental Affairs and the Lilongwe Water Board.
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources, Welani Chilenga, told the local media after the meeting that Khato Civils has cut the cost of the project from US$400 million dollars to US$315 million.
“Lilongwe Water Board had already pumped in US17 million and that has also been subtracted, bringing the total cost to US298 million (about K227 billion),” said Chilenga.
“We are also happy that Khato Civils have also shown commitment to continue the project with the new government,” Chilenga said.
The Salima-Lilongwe water project has been a subject of legal battles with the civil society taking the government to court for awarding the firm the contract before an environmental assessment was done, a matter which Khato Civils won.
The project, if done, is expected to provide water to the city of Lilongwe via a 120-kilometre pipeline from Lake Malawi.
Khato Civils is on record to have said that it spent $71.2 million of its money on the required processes prior to starting the project
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Let the government give it to him so that they can hung themselves. This man screwed the south Africans. why take the risk. This thing will soon haunt you.
This government needs to rethink its priorities. We’ve the entire BT City going for days without water. The new government has only achieved arrests and familiarization tours. We know that the arrests are important but we also want to see clear direction. We need know how this Simbi contract was awarded. We need to know how those ministers that were distributing money at a political meeting in the north got their money. We can clearly see that when the present admin took over there was no clear plans to improve the Malawi economy. When the 3 month budget was being… Read more »
It means the real cost is lower than USD 315 Million. The other part is corruption
This con artist is going to dupe government the time they wake up money will be gone. Check what he did in Mpumalanga. The guy will sweet talk and eventually steal your money.
He who controls the money doesn’t care who makes the laws.
Kkkkkkk achotselako ka 73billion kwacha? Such a joke. Just st cancel and restart the whole tender n biding thing
Competitive bidding is required. Bring in the Chinese and u will see the price drop. 8n any case, ttwmendous amounts of energy will be required to pump that water and uitvwill cause huge brown outs and black outs to sustain it. U may indeed get water at the expense of electricity!! Shaaaa!
Just advertise this thing again. it’s clear the DPP wanted to use it corruptly and now you are doing the same. Do a fresh one. if Simbi wins it then it’s ok
Surely the US$100 million must have been added by the corrupt dpp government that we ousted on 23rd June 2020. That is not a secret. Dpp was a mafia government as echoed in the Times Newspaper.
Simbi is a certified con artist. Chakwera will hang Malawi because of the loans he took from this crook. Just Google Khato. Limpopo.
Simbi is MCP supporter. That portion he has removed was going to go to MCP, now he has no choice but to remove it. He inflated the price deliberately so that he can given a share to his party.
Barter trade yachitikapo apa , tsogolo muno tadzamva kuti city center yonse ndi plot ya munthu winawake…