K17bn Mzimba water project opens January
The Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) says it will officially commission the K17 billion ($22 .8 million)Mzimba water supply system in January 2019 after completing main works.
NRWB director of finance Francis Munthali said last week that when commissioned, the system will increase production capacity from 570 cubic metres to 5 300 cubic metres per day to cater for 47 000 people.
Munthali was briefing officials from the Public Sector Reforms Management Unit (PSRMU) in the Office of the President and Cabinet who visited NRWB to appreciate the board’s reforms programme.
Chief reforms officer Emily Tembo commended the board “for doing a good job”.
She said:“Various institutions are eager to implement the reforms since we launched the agenda in 2015. Doing business as usual is gone. Now we are getting a lot of good success stories.” she said.
The Mzimba Integrated Urban Water and Sanitation Project is being financed by the African Development Bank ($5 million), Opec Fund for International Development ($14.85 million) and the Government of Malawi ($3 million).
The project’s implementation period is from December 2015 to June 2019.
The board embarked on the project after noting that the capacity of Mzimba water supply system did not match the water demand, and after noting sanitation challenges faced by the town.n
