By Tione Andsen, MANA
The country’s Water Boards are still owed K30 billion in water bills from government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, reveals Water Services Association of Malawi (WASAM).
WASAM Executive Secretary, Dokani Ngwira revealed this to Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Friday in Lilongwe during a press briefing regarding the threat of COVID-19 in the country.
Dokani Ngwira, WASAM Executive Secretary
He said the bill was reduced to K23 billion by the end of 2019 after some payments were made but the mount has increased due to accrued bills from some government departments.
“Efforts were made to install pre-paid meters in order to reduce the burden of accumulative water bills but the effort has not covered all departments,” he said.
Prepaid water meters
“Installations of such meters at the offices was costing water boards a whopping K120,000 per while for domestic use is only K40,000 per meter.
“The Boards are spending more on the exercise but they are still failing to recover their monies,” Ngwira explained.
He added government owes Lilongwe Water Board K8.5 billion, Northern Region Water Board K4 billion, Central Region Water Board K3.9 billion, Blantyre Water Board K4.5 billion and Southern Region Water Board K9.1 billion in water bills.
Ngwira pointed out that the non-payment of the bills was making the Boards fail to implement a number of projects relating to water supply.
“Boards are struggling financially to make new water connections to their customers and extend their water supplies to other areas within their operating zones.
“We wish that government should encourage the department to settle their water bills in time by utilizing their monthly budgetary allocations,” he said.
Water and Environmental Sanitation (WES) Network National Coordinator, Willies Mwandira has appealed to government to make sure it leads by example in ensuring that it honours all the bills it owes to the Water Boards.
Coronavirus alert
He said lack of sense of urgency to settle all unpaid bills should come up with support packages for the Water Boards to enable them fulfill their obligations of providing potable water to Malawians during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Blantyre Water Board has introduced a promotion where connection fee has been reduced from K50,000 to K15,000 up to June 30, 2020 as part of the COVID-19 fight initiatives.