K4.3bn irrigation project flops

The Nkopola Irrigation Scheme in Mangochi, a $10 million (about K4.3 billion) project has flopped due to a reported engineering mistake. It now needs a further $10 million despite costing taxpayers K400 000 monthly in electricity bills.

The project was funded by a loan from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) in 2005 and was expected to start benefitting people of Mangochi in 2010. However, three years after the deadline, the project is still a non-starter.

Minister of Water Development and Irrigation Anita Kalinde, who on Thursday visited the project, accused her ministry’s officials of spending their time in offices instead of being on the ground.

She said she will report the matter to President Joyce Banda who, she said, is keenly following the issue.

“President Joyce Banda sent me to inspect the works and she is waiting for a report. People supposed to benefit from the scheme are complaining and Chief Chimwala told the President about the project. I am not happy with what I have seen,” she told the officials who accompanied her.

Phase One of the project was supposed to finish in 2010 when people would have started cultivating on the scheme as by that time laying down of pipes, a water pumping station from Lake Malawi and a water reservoir upland would have finished.

The minister said she was further disappointed to learn that despite the scheme not working, government is paying K400 000 per month to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) in electricity bills.

Robert Maganga, principal irrigation officer responsible for Machinga Irrigation Services Division, told the minister that according to the project agreement, government is supposed to pay the said amount to Escom irrespective of whether the project is working.

He said: “The K400 000 we are paying is called capacity charge and we started paying in 2011.”

Maganga also said the main reason the Nkopola Irrigation Scheme Project is non-functional is that acidic soils are corroding the metallic pipes the contractor had buried underground, resulting into water leakage.

However, this explanation infuriated the minister who questioned the role of engineers in the project.

The scheme sits on 800 hectares where locals would have started growing various crops all-year-round with water pumped from the nearby Lake Malawi.