Water woes continue to torment Malawians
Malawians continue to face low water supply in the country, a situation that has forced 12 Nkanamwano Chilobwe-Naotcha women in Blantyre to march to Blantyre Water Board (BWB) to complain about non supply of water in their area.
Spot survey in the area has shown that people are using water tapped from Soche hills by an individual who also supply to other houses and most taps are dry as well as water tanks.
BWB water supply ends at Naotcha Primary School and people after the school use water that was tapped from Soche hills. Josephine Phiri who led the Nkanamwano Naotcha Women team explained that people from Chilobwe-Naotcha get water once a month especially during end of the month.
“Our main worry is that we pay a lot of money to BWB close to K13 000 (US$32) but we only get water once a month and on top of this they do not come to get bills. We only know our bills when we go to pay the bills.
“We have been reporting but nothing happens hence our marching to the offices. What we want is to have water. What is the use of having a water tap and we do not enjoy the commodity?” said Phiri. Phiri said the women had warned the BWB that if the water supply is not starting soon, they will camp at the offices.
She said previously they had not been facing such problems but after BWB tapped to Chatha where there is another water project the situation changed and the supply completely stopped.
However, director of distribution and commerce, Sydney Nkhoma described the problem as not water shortage but the disturbance of supply.
“It’s a solvable problem and we believe that something has disturbed the water supply. It’s not a big problem and we will solve the problem. We believe soon people will be accessing water,” said Nkhoma
