Ministry urges water boards to have backup power
Ministry of Water has urged water boards in the country to urgently consider procurement of backup power to have a seamless water supply during power outages.
Deputy Minister of Water John Bande said this yesterday in Lilongwe during the official handover of 38 diesel generators worth K598 million to Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) to be installed in various water pumping stations across the Southern Region.
He acknowledged that in Malawi the power outage has caused challenges in water supply; hence, the ministry wants to ensure constant supply of water across the country.
Said Bande: “We are encouraging all the water boards to have alternative power supply and the fastest solution is to purchase diesel generators just as Southern Region Water Board has done and with time they must opt for solar power”.
“Therefore, with the government’s free water supply connection initiative, without constant power to provide seamless water supply, the plan will be in vain.”
The minister challenged the SRWB management to avoid abusing the generators so that they serve the intended purpose of powering water pumping machines.
Bande further acknowledged that Sustainable Development Goals stipulate that all Malawians should have access to potable water by 2030; hence, the creation of the Ministry of Water has the mandate to ensure progress is made.
SRWB chief executive officer Duncan Chambamba said they considered procurement of the generators to ensure constant water supply to customers.
“The challenge that we have been having as an organisation is that whenever there is power outage, we have been unable to supply water to our customers.
“So we decided to go this way, but the best way these days is to install solar energy, but it is expensive to install at one go, so we went for a short time solution to procure the generators while we identify resources for solar power,” he said.
In terms of coverage, Chambamba said they are currently at 84 percent coverage of portable water supply in the Southern Region and they are working to cover the raining 16 percent in few years to come.
He assured consumers that there will be no increase in water tariffs due to the procurement of the generators.
