MCA-Malawi promises compensations in Dec

Millennium Challenge Account Malawi (MCA-Malawi) says all people who are going to be affected by its $350 million electricity project will start receiving compensations in December this year.

Some people from Traditional Authority (T/A) Kaphuka in Dedza whose land will be affected by the project recently complained that MCA-Malawi is delaying their compensations.

They said MCA-Malawi failed to start compensating them in October as it had earlier promised.

MCA-Malawi spokesperson Felix Malamula said in an interview that they failed to start disbursing compensations in October because of queries they have been receiving from some communities regarding the compensations.

He said: “Others are not satisfied with the amount of money they will receive as compensation so we need to engage an evaluator to do a re-assessment of their properties.

“However, I can assure all the people who have no queries that they will start getting their compensations in early December.”

Malamula said they have already contracted an Australian company called Snowy Mountain Engineering Company (SMEC) to conduct the re-assessment exercise.

The electricity project will affect over 6 000 people in eight districts where the transmission lines will pass through such as Balaka, Ntcheu, Dedza, Lilongwe, Nkhotakota, Mzimba, Mzuzu and Karonga.—mana