District health offices (DHOs) have proposed a review of their billing classification for utilities from industrial to social to cut down on water and electricity bills eating up their budget lines.
They made the proposal after recommendations made at Health Services Managers Network (Hesnet) annual conference in Blantyre last month for Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and water boards to review the classification.
The hospitals observed that water and electricity bills clearance has been a major challenge in most public hospitals, a situation that affects service delivery.
Reads the resolution in part: “Some councils such as Kasungu and Nkhotakota are still overburdened with high water bills. Other districts like Chikwawa with high electricity bills.
“DHOs through MoH [Ministry of Health] to meet utility companies i.e. Escom and water boards to discuss transition from ‘industrial entity’ costing systems to ‘social entity/institution’ costing system.”
Hesnet is a network of managers and directors of health services (DHSs) from all the country’s city and district councils.
In separate interviews yesterday, the DHOs said they feel that if approved, the new billing system would help to improve service delivery and free some financial resources.
Nsanje DHS Gilbert Chapweteka said on average they spend K8 million monthly on electricity which cripples service delivery in other sections.
He said: “Mainly we have problems with Escom because they charge us as if we are in profit-making business, yet we just offer services.
“We buy K8 million worth of electricity units every month, if multiplied by 12 months for the year, it means near half of the funding goes towards paying bills.”
Chapweteka’s counterpart in Rumphi, Arnold Jumbe, said they use about K23 million monthly for electricity and water bills. He said the office was also struggling to clear outstanding water and electricity bills of about K25 million.
“We also pay about K2.5 million as the capacity charge as if we are profit making entity. So we want them [utility bodies] to change the billing system,” he said.
The situation is the same in other districts, including Thyolo and Mzimba South.
Ministry of Water and Sanitation Principal Secretary Elias Chimulambe and Escom spokesperson Peter Kanjere separately asked for questionnaires yesterday.
Kanjere said Escom would only give its position on the proposal upon getting official communication while Chimulambe was yet to respond.
Last year, Thyolo DHO pleaded for a bailout as it was struggling to settle K200 million Escom electricity bills.
In 2021, Southern Region Water Board stopped Thyolo and Nsanje DHOs from using water from boreholes on the basis that the law restricted them.
Section 19 of the Waterworks Act (1995) states that the board shall provide a supply of potable water sufficient for the domestic purposes of the inhabitants within a water supply area.
