Hope for water in desperate times

The UN General Assembly declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation. And the theme of this year’s World Water Week, September 1-7, is Water Cooperation: Building Partnerships. In Malawi, access to potable water is a great challenge both in rural and urban areas. Is there hope for the people? Are there innovations that are working around the world to conserve water resources and make clean water available to everyone? EPHRAIM NYONDO writes.

If it is true that water is life, then Elufe Kalipinde and hundreds of other residents of Chirimba Township in Blantyre, are living without life.

There is hardly a functional water point close to her. The nearest one, which is about 500 metres from her house, barely functions.

“We wake up as early as 2am to draw water from it. The pressure is very low and there is always a long queue of women waiting for their turn. Often, we leave without water,” she says.

Kalipinde and other women usually walk distances of as long as 800 metres to get to the nearest functional water point.

“It is hectic, tough and expensive,” she says.

The challenge of accessing safe water for low-income urban dwellers such as Kalipinde is not strange in Malawi.

The 2007 data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicate that access to safe water is at 99 percent in Mzuzu and Lilongwe and 97 percent in Blantyre. But the picture behind these rosy figures is glum.

Take, for instance, the findings of a 2009 study conducted by urban planner Mtafu Zeleza Manda. The study found that about 53 percent of households bought water from kiosks located within their areas, 26.2 percent had individual connections, 13.2 percent bought water from another house plot, two percent had shallow wells on their plots and 4.8 percent drew water from other sources such as boreholes and streams.

In addition, the 2005 NSO data shows that 58 percent of low income urban dwellers in Malawi travel over 15 minutes to reach a water source. Manda’s study, too, attests to this. It showed that 23 percent of households reported taking 15 or more minutes to draw water (in a queue), while 63 percent reported taking five minutes or less.

Beyond that, there has been cases, for instance in 2008, when cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe could live without piped water for over a week. This means the challenge of water access among low income urban dwellers in Malawi, as seen from Kalipinde’s story, is very real.

Despite the challenges, there is hope. It emanates from the Malawi Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation Project for Blantyre and Lilongwe which started in 2009.

The K14.2 billion project—financed through an EU Water Facility Grant of K6.9 billion, a subsidised K7.2 billion loan from the European Investment Bank and technical assistance and support from the Malawi Government—aims, mostly, at upgrading key water and sanitation infrastructure and institutional capacity development.

In addition to the Blantyre Water Board (BWB) and Lilongwe Water Board (LWB), the two water boards implementing the project, there is also financial support given to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) advising on project implementation. One of them is Water for People in Blantyre.

Signs of progress

Though Kalipinde is yet to benefit from the project, in Nancholi, another low-income township in Blantyre, locals have started to see some benefits.

“We used to walk long distances to get water from dug-out wells. Often, the water could not be safe but it is all we had. Today, with this kiosk we are able to draw water without hassles,” says Felista Banda from Nancholi.

Located 80 metres from her house, the kiosk—which was built by BWB with technical assistance from Water for People under the EU project—provides water to a number of households surrounding it at quite a subsidised rate.

“We pay K10 for a bucket, which is manageable. Although we experience challenges with erratic flow of water sometimes, we are happy that things are changing for us,” explains Banda.

So far, according to BWB director of technical services Mavuto Chiipanthenga, 363 kiosks across Blantyre have been established in areas where people used to experience water supply challenges. He says the new machinery brought in at Walkers Ferry has helped the statutory corporation to increase water supply to low income areas.

“The main challenge we have is that our pumping machine at Walkers Ferry is old. It was designed to cater for 500 000 residents but today, because of the increase in population; it is being squeezed to cater for millions. With the new machines to be planted very soon, there is hope that some of the challenges of water pressure will be reduced,” he said.

He added that with increased level of rehabilitation and upgrading of worn out pipes happening under the project, BWB has managed, so far, to reduce water wastage rate between 48 percent and 51 percent to between 33 percent and 40 percent.

“Our target is to reach 25 percent and we have hope we will reach that,” he said.

Two MPs, Symon Vuwa Kaunda and Edwin Banda—who are committee members of the Africa Pacific Caribbean European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly under which the EU project is operating—expressed satisfaction in the progress of the project.

And Banda had good things to say after touring some of the projects in Blantyre a week ago.

“We are impressed with the progress being done. We are grateful to BWB for the implementation part and also to the EU for the funds,” he said.

Challenges ahead

Being a project which is part grant and part a loan, the question of sustainability and repaying the loans cannot be avoided. Currently, the kiosks are being managed by Water Users Association (WUA) who collect fees from low income urban dwellers that use the water points.

However, according to an official at Mudi WUA, the collections are quite low for the water bills and also technical management of the kiosks.

“The problem is that this project targets low income urban dwellers. So, the moment you begin to think of raising the fees, you know it will not reflect well on the people,” said the official.

Beyond that, part of the project is a soft loan which will have to be repaid. However, with the project’s emphasis on low income dwellers, will the boards have enough to repay the loan?

“We are not just targeting low income dwellers. I believe with the new machine at Walkers Ferry and the upgrading of the pipes, we will also increase our water output even to high and middle income consumers, industries and manufacturing companies. I believe we will have the revenue. After all, this is a soft loan,” said Chiipanthenga.