By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, September 25, Mana: Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Director of Water Resources Engineer James Chitete said his ministry is committed to protecting groundwater to sustain water supply sources such as rivers and boreholes in the country.

He made the remarks on Wednesday during the opening of Malawi National Groundwater Stakeholders Dialogue which was held at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Chitete said his ministry is currently intensifying various efforts aimed at protecting the groundwater.

“As government what we are doing now is to improve on the aquifer recharge and we are restoring the catchment so that the ground cover of a lot of catchment areas which provide water for primary water sources is enhanced and protected,” Chitete said.

He added that, through the catchment restoration intervention the ministry is working with various partners including the Department of Forestry which promotes initiatives like natural regeneration that help in protecting the groundwater.

The Director further called for more efforts to also be made by other stakeholders including communities and organisations to support the protection of the groundwater saying that groundwater plays a crucial role in the country.

“Groundwater is very crucial in Malawi because is the source of both water supply and even some investments which we have like irrigation systems and almost 80 percent of the population in Malawi depends on groundwater for water supply,” he said.

Chitete also warned that if the groundwater is not properly managed, primary water supply sources such as boreholes and rivers would be affected.

“Groundwater is the resource which is very key and if it is not properly managed the water table will be going down, we have some cases where we have boreholes that were drilled sometimes back because of the degradation of the groundwater the source is not enough.

“Some of the boreholes by the time water-table goes down around September or there about the boreholes run dry because of the degradation of the groundwater, so we need to improve on the recharge of the aquifers,” Chitete explained.

The Malawi National Groundwater Stakeholders Dialogue attracted various officials from Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) such as; WaterAid and BASEflow just to mention some.   

Also speaking during the event, National Focal Group on Groundwater Co-Chairperson, Dr. Brighton Chunga commended the meeting.

“Beyond 60 percent of the rural areas depend on groundwater and we must manage it, therefore the conference would help us to come up with the best ways on how we can manage our groundwater,” he said.