Irrigation water pumps gather dust in Nsanje

Two electric water pump engines which government through the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development provided to Shire and Nkotamu irrigation schemes in Nsanje in 2011 are gathering dust Malawi News Agency (Mana) has established.

Communities and Group Village Head Mbeta blame the staff at the ministry for failing to install the pumps which are worth millions of kwacha.

“We were told to mould bricks for housing the pump, but nothing has happened despite several attempts to remind them,” said Mbeta, who has been keeping one of the pumps since 2011.

He said irrigation farming would have helped solve the perennial problem of food shortage in the area.

“In Nsanje, we usually face effects of climate change such as floods and drought which affect our agricultural production. We were happy when the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development provided us with the water pumps.

“It is unfortunate that we are still facing challenges in accessing water from Shire River when the engine which government gave us is gathering dust,” he lamented.

District agricultural development officer (Dado) for Nsanje, Isaac Ali, admitted that they are yet to install the pumps.

“We applied for transformers from Electricity Supply Cooperation of Malawi [Escom] and they provided us with one which will supply power to Nkotamu pump. Currently, we are waiting for another one for Shire Irrigation Scheme,” Ali said.

He assured the communities that the pumps will be installed once issues of transformers are sorted out.