Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) requires $50 million (about K36.5 billion) to construct a dam envisaged to improve water supply in Mzimba by 2023.
Currently, NRWB taps water from Mzimba River, but the intake is considered too small to adequately supply the rapidly growing population beyond 2022 despite ongoing expansion works under the $22.85 million (about K16.6 billion) Mzimba Integrated Urban Water and Sanitation Project.
In an interview, NRWB acting director of technical services Asumani Ungwe said the board has not found financiers for the dam whose site was identified in 2009.
“What we are using now is what we call ‘run of river’. The flow of Mzimba River is only adequate for the next five years,” said Ungwe.
Sawa Group has completed 20 percent of civil works under the ongoing project bankrolled by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Opec Fund for International Development (Ofid) and government to the tune of $ 22.85 million.
On Monday, Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Irrigation chairperson Joseph Chidanti Malunga expressed satisfaction with progress of the works when the legislators toured the project sites. n
