Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) says it is losing about K10 billion annually to illegal connections and theft of water meters.
LWB chief executive officer Sili Mbewe said this on Saturday when the board signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Malawi Police Service to enhance collaboration in curbing vandalism and theft of meters.
He said the board has in the past 10 months lost 2 000 meters to theft which is costing K2 billion to replace, adding that illegal water connections contribute to 10 percent of non-revenue water losses which translates to K7.5 billion.
“This is money that could be used to improve service delivery,” said Mbewe.
He, therefore, said having police officers assigned to LWB to deal with the challenges is bearing fruit.
Said Mbewe: “Today, we are formalising the arrangement by signing the MoU, but the police officers joined us on January 1 this year.
“So far, within just this period, we have 13 criminal cases fully investigated and out of those cases seven have been taken to court and fully prosecuted. I am delighted to report that for the seven cases we have had 100 percent conviction rate.”
Malawi Police Service director of human resources Violet Magwaya said the police are committed to curbing theft and vandalism of LWB equipment.
“Access to clean water is a human right and people should not be denied clean water because of theft and vandalism of equipment. The police also benefit from the water that LWB supplies. So, we will ensure that we deal with issues of theft and vandalism,” she said.
Through the MoU, police officers have been placed on secondment at LWB.
