Bingu Stadium hit with K59m water bill

Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has quoted the newly-opened Bingu National Stadium (BNS) a K59 million bill but the sports facility’s management has appealed to the utility company not to disconnect it.

Confirming the development in an interview, BNS operations manager Ken Ning’ang’a said the bill is an accumulation from 2013 when construction of the stadium was still underway.

“We inherited a bill of K21 million from the contractors which accumulated from four years ago. The Lilongwe Water Board [LWB] showed us documented proof to justify the bill, so we don’t have queries,” he said.

Ning’ang’a also blamed the bill on broken pipes which, according to him, have been a constant occurrence at the stadium.

“In the past few months, we have had broken pipes for about four times. This, we believe, has also contributed to the increase in the bill,” he said.

The operations manager, meanwhile, has said that they have submitted the bill to government and that they were waiting for funding.

In the meantime, Ning’ang’a has said they are working to curb over-reliance on piped water.

“As a way of cutting bills, we want to be using boreholes. The other thing is that the water we use in toilets is recycled so we are optimistic that once we have cleared this bill, we will not be billed such a huge amount again,” he said.

LWB asked for a questionnaire when we asked them for its comment. As we went to press the parastatal had not responded to it.

The Lilongwe-based 40 000-capacity state-of-the-art stadium was constructed with a loan from the Chinese Government. It was officially opened early this year.