BWB says sorry, restores supply

Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has apologised to its consumers in and around Blantyre City for dry taps experienced yesterday. The board has attributed the problem to a burst main supply pipe from Walker’s Ferry near Makata Industrial Area.

BWB public affairs officer Priscilla Mateyu said the fault was fixed by 2pm yesterday and that supply had been restored to over half of the city.

She said: “Our main supply pipe that distributes water to various parts of Blantyre City townships from Walker’s Ferry to Nyambadwe burst on Tuesday night and our engineers had been working on it until Thursday. It has been fixed now and all areas that had been affected will start receiving water as has been the case. Only parts of Limbe will continue experiencing the water problem due to some other issues beyond our control.”

In recent months, BWB has been struggling to provide reliable water supply to the commercial city. In some areas, residents go for days or weeks without a drop of water.

BWB has been attributing the problems to rehabilitation works meant to upgrade the capacity to supply.

This week, the situation worsened with the country’s main referral hospital, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), experiencing water shortages, forcing it to refer some cases to nearby hospitals such as Mlambe Mission Hospital in Lunzu and Thyolo District Hospital.