Erratic water supply in Blantyre should be thing of the past by October 2020

"As for the Water situation in Blantyre, it is completely unacceptable that people should stay two days or even one week without water," Chilima

Today I engaged Blantyre Water Board (BWB) again to get clarity on what has led to the Board to regress to the point of incurring K8.9 billion loss in the 2019/20 financial year as presented when I met management team last Thursday, August 27, 2020.

During that meeting, I had requested for clarity on tangible gains on dropped/achieved reform areas; contradiction on non revenue water which has gone up from 37% in 2018/19 to 54 percent in 2019/20; reasons for non revenue water, reasons for loss of MK8.9 Billion for 2019/20; road map for the installation of pre-paid meters; and water situation in Blantyre.

For the follow up meeting today, we had a candid discussion and we have given each other assignments and tasks to correct the situation in the shortest period possible.

As for the Water situation in Blantyre, it is completely unacceptable that people should stay two days or even one week without water.

To this effect, we have resolved and greed that erratic water supply in Blantyre should be a thing of the past effective 2nd October, 2020.

This means that we have given management 30 days to fix the problem. The Board has committed to implement this. We have agreed that failure is not an option for this task.

Tonight or tomorrow, the Board will issue a press statement committing the same to the residents of Blantyre that water supply will stabilize in 30 days from today.

In between, every Tuesday before 2nd October, the Board will be sending an update to the Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Hon. Nancy Tembo, who we were together in the meeting, on the strides being taken to ensure that water supply stabilizes before or by 2nd October.

Thank you. Enjoy your day.