From the winding road to Chawe Peak on Zomba Plateau, visitors marvel at the camera-ready Mulunguzi Dam, home to Malawi’s first hydropower plant until 2003.
However, the superlatives from thrilled tourists and passersby quickly fade into a regretful probe among pensive pilgrims: Just how did the country reduce the vast dam on its second-tallest mountain to just providing potable water for its colonial capital?
“With all that water and height, we should be generating electricity for Zomba City and surrounding areas. A few years back, Norway was willing to fund the power generation project, but we lost the opportunity because authorities didn’t seem interested,” laments Professor Sosten Chiotha, executive director of Leadership for Environment and Development in Southern Africa.
The south-eastern city solely depends on the dam for potable water.
The mountaintop reservoir on Mulunguzi River feeds Southern Region Water Board pipelines and streams that water the Lake Chilwa basin, a vital wetland that sustains the livelihoods of over a million farmers, fishers and birders.
Until 22 years ago, the dam was home to a 600-kilowatt hydropower plant established in 1952.
The Zomba Mini-Hydropower Plant comprised twin turbines, a 1951 dynamo made in South Africa and its lookalike fashioned in England two years later. As water flushed into long pipes across the steep slopes, the spinning turbines at the power house at the foot of the nearly 2 087-metre tall mountain produced electricity for the colonial elites.
Since it was dismantled in 2003, the power dynamos are open for public viewing at Chichiri Museum in Blantyre City.
Over two decades since Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) consigned the relic to the exhibition grounds, an idea is gaining sway that going back to basics could wean Zomba City from stuttering national power grid.
Newer dynamos are concentrated on the Shire River, a tale of a nation that continues to put all its eggs in one basket amid the devastating effects of climate change and environmental degradation. The hydropower sites supply about 20 percent of the population, albeit with frequent blackouts.
The country’s first hydropower plant shows Mulunguzi Dam has the potential to produce electricity, but it wasn’t generating enough for everyone in the old capital city. A narrative in our custody shows that it was overtaken by technological advancement, rapid population growth and newer power generation sites, but we can learn from it and improve on it.
All in one
The exploitation of Zomba’s largest dam amplifies calls for integrated water investments—a realisation that water serves different purposes for various groups, so all stakeholders must work together to manage, utilise and conserve it for their benefit and generations to come.
Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) acting chief executive officer Maxon Chitawo says relevant sectors need a platform where they can share water-related ideas, resources and plans for the good of the nation.
He states: “At Egenco, we look at water as a resource for energy generation and a basic need for our staff, as is the case at Kapichira Hydro power Station which is not supplied by Blantyre Water Board.
“We work with the water board to ensure the rivers are dredged for a win-win situation and the Shire Valley Transformation Programme is constructing an intake at our Kapichira Dam for the massive irrigation project taking shape in Chikwawa and Nsanje.”
Just a megawatt
However, the Egenco chief is concerned about the underutilised potential of Mulunguzi Dam.
He recounts: “When I was teaching at Mzuzu University, we wanted to do a study to understand how much water was being released downhill. There are no questions about the height; the head is right. However, we need further assessment to understand if it releases enough flows for energy generation.”
For Chitawo, even a megawatt provides enough reason for Egenco to embark on the project.
He said: “If we can get enough water to generate that megawatt, then it makes business sense to invest in the project. In Likoma, we produce 1.3MW from a solar farm and diesel generators. Why not in Zomba?”
However, Chitao said he was not aware of the snubbed funding from Norway.
Still, Community Energy Malawi executive director Edgar Bayani said it is puzzling that the country seems reluctant to reap the benefits of integrated water projects dating back to the colonial era.
He states: “Passing by Mulunguzi Dam, it’s sad that we are not fully ultilising water resources whose potential was well known even before independence in 1964.
“I encourage the integrated approach, which helps people to see the benefits of water from different angles.
“With the swelling Lake Malawi and its outlet, the Shire, we have some Mangochi residents petitioning the government to open the barrage in Liwonde because they don’t understand what the outflows from the lake mean to the lives, livelihoods, croplands, power stations and businesses downstream.”
Despite the rising rhetoric from policymakers and service providers, Bayani says there is little progress to make the integrated water management approach work.
He said: “As it stands, I’m not convinced that there is a multi-sectoral or inter-agency approach to water management, except where there are donor-driven initiatives such as the Shire Valley Transformation Project at the southern tip and Songwe River Basin along the border between Malawi and Tanzania. William Falls on Mulunguzi River can power Zomba City, freeing the national grid to serve the rest of the nation.”
The $28.9 million modernisation of Mulunguzi Dam started in June 1997 and was completed in August 2001 under the National Water Development Project funded by World Bank.
