Govt urges SRWB to increase water supply

Amid water woes that have hit Liwonde, Minister of Water and Sanitation Abida Mia has urged Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) to supply clean and adequate water to people.

She said this on Friday when she toured a water treatment plant at Liwonde in Machinga.

Mia said people have a right to access safe water all the time.

Liwonde continues to experience water challenges, forcing most people to access water at night.

She said: “This water system was designed to supply water to 8 000 people, but it only caters for 3 200 people and, currently, the water supply is at 2 500 cubic metres against the required 6 000 cubic metres.

“I know SRWB plans to install two-heavy duty boreholes to reduce the problem, but this is still too little to meet people’s demand for clean water. As such, we challenge SRWB to install additional two boreholes.

“The situation in Liwonde is very bad and I would describe it as a crisis; hence, we cannot wait until 2024 to complete the Balaka-Liwonde Water Project.”

In his remarks, SRWB executive director Duncan Chambamba said they have accepted the minister’s challenge to provide adequate and clean water to people of Liwonde and pledged to take practical steps to achieve that.

He said: “SRWB has already identified funds for this project as an interim measure to reduce water shortage in Liwonde.

“We will install four boreholes to ease the situation since at the moment people only access water at night.”

Chambamba said in the short-term the board will use K450 million to drill heavy duty boreholes and install equipment to pump water to people.