Gondwe speaks on water projects
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe says authorities were too excited about the K400 billion ($500 million) Lake Malawi Water Project and forgot about the feasibility study when they signed a contract with Khato Civils Limited.
The project, contracted by Khato Holdings Limited, has raised controversy over the lack of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) as well as a feasibility study.
Gondwe was responding to a query from politician Dan Msowoya during this year’s third pre-budget consultation meeting on Friday in Mzuzu.
Msowoya wanted clarifications on how government procured the services of Khato Civils Limited to run the project.
In response, Gondwe said: “I am almost at the centre of that project and I get the impression that the more people talk about it, the more people don’t understand what was involved.”
He said government had to find another solution to Lilongwe water problems after the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) pulled out of
the Diamphwe Multipurpose Dam Project.
He said government was informed about a possibility of pumping water from the lake and it could not only bring water to Lilongwe, but also provide water for irrigation for Salima, Dowa and Lilongwe.
According to Gondwe, when the project was advertised, Khato Civils Limited owned by South African based businessperson Simbi Phiri offered to do it.
“Unfortunately, people became so confused about what is the case and they forgot that it is almost a law in Malawi that before you can get into a project you must have a feasibility study. They then tendered and signed an agreement with the contractor not on financial agreement but on engineering, procurement, construction and funding arrangement [EPCF],” he said.
Gondwe added that this did not go down well with the Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale who thought that he had been bypassed in the process as he is supposed to check such projects before they go to Parliament.
“All of us are completely confused on what is happening. I went to South Africa four days ago to talk to them about the confusion. I told them that if they find the money, before we do this, we must have a feasibility study first and we must tell everybody that the project is viable,” he said.
Gondwe also revealed that the World Bank contested on how government had handled the project.
“We will do it the right way. Now the World Bank will discuss with us again on Diamphwe and they will give us the money,” he said.
While the AfDB which was supposed to do the piping in the city, also withdrew because Malawi belongs to the least developed countries and can only get money from African Development Fund at interest free rate; hence they left because they did not have the proper amount of money.
Lilongwe Water Board is implementing the project to pump water from Lake Malawi to Lilongwe City through a pipe stretching over 130 kilometres from the lakeshore district of Salima.
