Water boards seek help over police water connections

 Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) and its Northern Region counterpart have enlisted the help of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Ministry of Natural Resources to engage Malawi Police Service on installing prepaid water metres in police formations.

The boa r d s ha v e complained of the police’s reluctance to have the metres installed in their offices, which is frustrating efforts to deal with unpaid bills that have resulted in post-paid metres in various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)

Cumulatively, the MDAs owe the country’s five water boards about K35.5 billion, with major culprits being the police and Malawi Defence Force (MDF).

Dur ing a r e c ent engagement with PAC, Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) director of operations Asumani Ungwe told the committee that they have engaged the police several times without success.

He said they were told that such metres can only be installed with the Police Inspector General’s (IG) approval.

Said Ungwe: “We had a meeting with representatives of the police who were very happy with prepaid metres. But when we started installation of the metres in January, we were told that we cannot install the metres at any police station unless the IG approves.

“So, we wrote the IG for his approval, but we did not receive any feedback and in February we followed up with another letter, and there has been no feedback. We are now seeking appointment with the IG to discuss these matters so that we are able to install prepaid metres in all MDAs.”

He said his water board is owed K7.8 billion by MDAs.

LWB act ing chief executive officer Sillie Mbewe said 97 percent of the K9 billion debt that MDAs owe the board is for police and Malawi Defence Force (MDF).

He said they have installed pre-paid water metres at Area 12 and 47 police units, but are yet to do so at major formations like Area 30.

Said Mbewe: “Our parent Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources will initiate the discussion with the police. Our colleagues in the police says the issues they had were to do with their reticulation system. They have so many leakages so they have to work on the system.

“The ministry will have to come in because it is now a policy issue. Across all institutions, we are owed K9 billion, out of which 97 percent is between two institutions, the army and police. For MDF, we have installed pre-paid metres, so the bill is before the installation took place.”

Mbewe said they have engaged the Ministry of Finance so that it directly pays them bills for MDAs where prepaid metres have been installed.

He said they are also suggesting that the money should be recovered from current allocations where 60 percent would go towards paying the bills, while the remaining 40 percent goes towards the current bill.

“The only challenge for now is that the allocations are based on current consumption, so to push in what was already consumed is a challenge. We are trying to see so that the previous bills can be paid separately,” Mbewe said.

M e a n w h i l e , PAC chairperson Shadreck Namalomba has said they have already met the office of President and Cabinet (OPC), where they were assured that the bills will be sorted out.

He also promised that his office will produce a report highlighting the issue over reluctance by the police.

“Among the many challenges that utility providers face is non-payment of bills. these bills are mainly coming from MDAs like the army, police and others. On Friday, we met people from OPC to brief them, but also for them to update us on what is being done to pay back the arrears.

“We were assured that government has come up with a policy of installing

 prepaid metres in all MDAs that government will also pay on behalf of these institutions. We have heard that the police is reluctant to have these metres installed, so we will write our report on the same making recommendations.” prepaid metres in all MDAs, but

National police spokesperson James Kadadzera said he needed time to consult authorities before responding to the matter.

Water Employees Trade Union of Malawi secretary general Ganizani Thyangathyanga said Southern Region Water Board is owed K9.3 billion out of which K7.2 billion is among MDAs.

“Blantyre Water Board is owed K5 billion by government and State Residences has K2.19 billion. The remaining amount is for ministries of Health and Education. The State Residences has promised to clear the bills gradually while waiting for ministry of finance to come in.

“Central Region Water Board is owed K4.9 billion and 4.2 billion for MDF and ministries of Health and Education. Private customers are also contributing heavily to the arrears due to Covid-19. It is a challenge since government told water boards not to disconnect water so that sanitation is not impacted.”

Recently, Minister of Natural Resources Nancy Tembo urged water boards to disconnect all MDAs that fail to settle their bills.

The unpaid bills, coupled with intermittent power supply, lack of projects, profitability, loses to non-revenue water, water quality, inadequate water sources and aged infrastructure are stifling operations of the boards to effectively deliver water and sanitation services