Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has confirmed that some areas in the capital city’s Area 18A residential estate were supplied tap water that had been mixed with sewage.
In an interview yesterday, LWB chief executive officer Alfonso Chikuni said the board has since appealed to residents in the affected area to desist from drinking tap water as LWB is working to rectify the problem.
He said his office learned about the development with sadness and an LWB team was on the ground to fix the problem within 24 hours.
“I can confirm that there is a sewer leakage which has affected some houses which uses our water in Area 18 A. We have advised the houses affected to refrain from drinking the tap water as our technical team is working on it now,” said Chikuni, an engineer by profession.
He said one of the supply pipes burst underground near a broken sewer system, a development that sipped the sewerage into the LWB supply pipeline.
In the interim, LWB, according to Chikuni, will provide safe water to the people affected as the cleaning of the affected water will take more than 12 hours to be safe for drinking.
News about the broken sewer contaminating LWB water supply had been making rounds on social media with Lilongwe City Council Mayor Desmond Bikoko sounding a warning to people in Area 18 to avoid drinking the water.
According to one Area 18 resident, Justin Kamwendo, who made a post on his Facebook page, he said he was wondering what was happening with the tap water as he was certain that it was coming from a sewer.
His post prompted the mayor to respond: “Please do not drink LWB water. The sewer line is leaking and has mixed with LWB pipes. Our team [Lilongwe City Council] and that from LWB are on the ground.”
