Govt to extract water from MJ Mt
President Peter Mutharika said yesterday government is looking into prospects of tapping water from Mulanje Mountain to Blantyre to enable residents to access the treasured resource more efficiently.
This comes at a time when residents in the city have expressed dissatisfaction with the intermittent water supply by Blantyre Water Board (BWB).
But speaking during a media conference at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre yesterday, President Mutharika assured the city’s residents the water woes would soon be history once the project takes shape.
Mutharika said during his seven-day official visit to China last week, he also held fruitful discussions with some Chinese companies on how they can help the country improve its water sector.
“We are thinking about getting some water from Mulanje Mountain to some parts of Blantyre. There is a company from India we are discussing with and we hope we will get it,” said Mutharika who convened the media to brief them about his China visit where he attended the 2015 World Economic Forum.
The President further said his government was planning to expand the Walker’s Ferry in Blantyre and the water sources in Lilongwe and Mzuzu to ensure effective provision of potable water in the country’s cities.
Despite this commitment, government recently approved increased water tariffs for all water boards to as high as 45 percent amid the continued water woes in the cities.
Commenting on his China trip, Mutharika said he held several bilateral meetings at the forum where he shared with the global audience the economic progress Malawi has achieved.
“The meeting also afforded the Malawi delegation the opportunity to build partnerships in trade and investment for Malawi’s sustainable economic growth and development,” he said.
The President also said the Chinese government assured Malawi of its willingness to give the country support on the second round of projects submitted to that government.
The new projects Malawi has submitted to the Chinese government include, in order of their priority, Kam’mwamba Coal-Fired Power Plant, rehabilitation of Chileka Airport, construction of Tsangano–Neno–Mwanza Road and E-Government (national identity) Project.
Others are construction of Mangochi–Makanjira Road, upgrading of the Phombeya–Makanjira–Chatoloma 220kv power line and a dual carriageway on the Alimaunde–Mchinji Roundabout on the M1 Road.
Mutharika said the Chinese government would soon be sending a team of experts to assess the said projects before consideration.
Never trust anything that politicians say. This is what experience has taught me
Idiot, do we not have engeers to design and implement such a project? Why always showing your foolishness buy asking other races the obvious?
Another empty promise, obviously politically motivated. By the way why do our leaders always react to situations instead of being proactive?
Do we have planners in govt? Water is life stop messing around with it, we need leaders who can be proactive and deal with situations before they get out of hand.
The population of the country is growing, any sensible govt should improve services that the public depends on well ahead before it’s too late.
Dry taps, persistent blackouts, death trap hospitals due to lack of medicine, unaffordable fertilise, high inflation, lack of forex, poor roads, security breakdown, low education standards, high transport costs, corruption, nepotism, unemployment, clueless politicians, just to mention a few problems that Malawians are up against on daily basis
The problem we have in Malawi is that the general public is so dull so much so that these incompetent leaders will be voted into govt again in the next general election, thanks to politics of regionalism. Am not surprised our country is the poorest in the world and I believe it shall remain so until Jesus comes again.
All these issues are true but no worse that wakwithusim that northerners practice. My department is filled with northeners from top to cleaner. Without shame they will call driver from nzuzu, assistant accountant has to be a niece of the CEO, driver has to be relation of the secretary who happens to be related to the previous accountant. Current account is rumored to be to sister of the CEO. This is the reason other regions can not risk a northern president. Ask what chihana did at when he was minister of water and irrigation. Having said that, yes we are going to remain poorest in the region and the civil war starts for surely it must.