‘We don’t benefit from Mpira Dam’

Community members around Mpira Dam in Ntcheu have said they do not benefit from the facility.

Ironically, Mpira Dam supplies water to Ntcheu, Balaka and Liwonde towns.

Traditional Authority Mpando said this on Friday when Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo visited the water facility ahead of the launch of Forests Landscape Restoration Project in the district.

“People are reluctant to take care of the vegetative cover around the dam because they are not benefitting from the water facility,” he said.

In his remarks, Ntcheu district water development officer Onances Nyirenda said the people around the dam do not get the water because of the water ferrying system.

“We use gravity fed system where the water flows according to gravity. So, with this system, water does not flow to uplands,” he said.

Nyirenda said, instead, communities around the dam source their water from boreholes.

“However, we need to drill more boreholes as those in use were drilled long ago,” he said.

In her remarks, Tembo asked for cooperation between authorities and the communities to restore the vegetative cover around the dam.

The Forests Landscape Restoration Project will be implemented in four countries and in Malawi it will be implemented in Ntcheu.

The five-year project is being financed to the tune of $3.3 million (about K2.6 billion) by the Government of Germany, but will be run in conjunction with Food and Agriculture Organisation.