JICA Praises Malawi Water Boards for Reducing Non-Revenue Water Losses
The workshop aims to further assist water providers in improving service delivery and sharing best practices to address ongoing challenges in Malawi's water sector.
BLANTYRE, Malawi— The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has commended Malawi's water utility boards for their progress in reducing non-revenue water challenges, a longstanding issue in the country's water sector, writes Steven Godfrey Mkweteza.
Kenta Mikami, assistant resident representative for JICA's Malawi office, expressed satisfaction with the interventions during a two-day workshop in Blantyre on Wednesday.
"Malawi has probably been one of African countries over the past decades with high challenges of non-water-revenue loss," Mikami said. "However, our support has seen a great change so far."
JICA has been providing technical and financial support to address these losses, which have historically hampered water supply and service expansion.
Mikami noted that non-revenue water losses have negatively impacted the water boards' ability to cover operating expenses and extend services.
"The water boards have been failing to cover the operating expenses including the energy costs, which have usually been high," he said.
Drawing parallels with Japan's experience, Mikami added, "It took 60 years for Japan to rectify challenges of water quality infrastructures, leakages and inefficiencies in water networks."
Dr. Robert Hanjahanja, CEO of Blantyre Water Board (BWB), praised JICA's interventions, stating they have helped reduce non-revenue water loss to about 46% in Blantyre.
"This is probably normal though it is high as compared to the other water boards," Hanjahanja said.
BWB has been implementing measures such as replacing old pipes and instituting anti-vandalism mechanisms.
Despite these efforts, Hanjahanja revealed that BWB still loses over 500 million Malawian kwacha monthly due to non-revenue water challenges and spends about 90 million kwacha monthly on repairing broken pipes.
The workshop aims to further assist water providers in improving service delivery and sharing best practices to address ongoing challenges in Malawi's water sector.