Minister of Water and Sanitation Abida Mia has hailed Malawi Water and Sanitation Project Phase 1 (MWSP-1) as one of the steps destined to help the country attain access to potable water by 2030.
In an interview after visiting projects under the World Bank-funded project in Blantyre on Friday, she said the project, which is among other activities constructing 15 new smart kiosks and upgrading 15 other existing community water points to be smart kiosks, will help residents in low income areas to access water conveniently.
“There will be 300 000 beneficiaries of the water and sanitation project. This will reduce the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera,” said Mia.
She said the ablution blocks constructed under the project in markets will all have incinerators.
Blantyre City mayor Joseph Makwinja said the project will help the city to improve access to potable water and do away with cholera which hits the city from time to time.
On his part, Blantyre Water Board (BWB) chairperson Joe Ching’ani said the five-year project is on course and that it will mitigate against cholera outbreaks in the city’s hotspots.
“We are satisfied with the progress made so far and we thank the World Bank for providing this kind of assistance that will alleviate or eliminate the cholera challenge around the hotspots that were identified in 2023,” he said.
The project, which is being jointly implemented by the BWB and Blantyre City Council, also seeks to improve sanitation facilities in markets, and will include construction of an engineered landfill in Chigumula to replace the Mzedi Dump site, construction of the Mzedi Dump site access road to reduce cases of dumping waste along the main road, improvement of the water distribution network to reduce non-revenue water and rehabilitation of the Soche WasteWater treatment plant in Zingwangwa, among others.
