Lilongwe Water Board hikes domestic tariff by 30% and 35% for commercial from Monday

* Done in accordance with the authority granted by Section 56 of the Waterworks Act and has since been gazetted

* The price adjustment has been necessitated by the escalating costs of water production

* And high costs of maintenance against a water tariff that was last adjusted in November 2021

By Duncan Mlanjira

Effective Monday, June 26, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) will effect water tariff by 30% for residential customers and 35% for commercial and institutional customers while charges of water supplied through communal kiosks have not been adjusted.

A statement from LWB management says this is in accordance with the authority granted by Section 56 of the Waterworks Act and has since been gazetted.

“The price adjustment has been necessitated by the escalating costs of water production and high costs of maintenance against a water tariff that was last adjusted in November 2021,” said the statement.

By implementing this tariff adjustment, LWB aims at improving its service delivery and ensuring that a great number of residents in the City have access to clean and safe drinking waters.”

LWB further says part of the last tariff adjustment of November 2021 was committed to the implementation of the Mbavi groundwater development project, which has been achieved.

“With the new tariff adjustment, the Board is committing to complete extension of its supply network to Nanjiri, Pondamali Trading Centre on the Bunda Road, the Western By-Pass, Mpingu, Dzenza and Nalikule.”

For more details on the tariff adjustment, the public is encouraged to contact customer call centre number 253 or visit LWB website; www.lwb.mw.

Earlier this month, Consumers Association Malawi (CAMA) threatened to take legal action against water supplier Water Boards if they were gazette the tariff adjust, which at that time had been proposed at 50%.

At a press briefing, Kapito had suggested that at least 15 or 20% could be the acceptable adjustment while also saying it was very unrealistic for Water Boards to propose for water tariffs without proper reasons when the price of water is already high and that majority of the consumers rarely have the access to piped water — which is due to poor operation of the companies in the supply of water.

He had added that if the Water Boards feel that they are making losses, they shouldn’t punish innocent Malawians because those losses are arising since they lost a big percentage of water due to their poor underground pipes, broken pipes which they are failing to maintain.

He also said the utility boards are failing to collect water bills from government agencies, who are owing them huge amount of money that can be used to address the challenges they are currently facing.

He had said: “It is very unfortunate that as poor as we are as a country, we are paying a lot of money to access water, which is not the same with majority of our neighbouring countries — whose prices are very fair and water supply is being run smoothly while here we have other areas where people stay for a long period to get water despite being connected to piped water.

“As CAMA, we’ll not tolerate or seat down and watch Water Board abusing Malawians. We are ready for them, we’ve consulted our lawyers to do judicial review if Parliament gazettes the Bill and we will go to court.”