By George Mponda

Karonga, February 4, Mana: Northern Region Water Board (NRWB), through Karonga Town Water Supply Project, is expected to install 10,000 free water connections to enhance accessibility to potable water for Karonga residents and surrounding areas.

NRWB Board Chairperson, Frank Mwenifumbo, made the revelation Saturday on the sidelines of an inspection tour of the project’s sites by NRWB and Ministry of Water and Sanitation officials.

Mwenifumbo said the project, which is at 85 percent completion rate, has 10,000 water connection materials which are going to be used for free to bring water to those who applied.

"At the moment, we have more than 9,500 applications and in line with government’s policy on free water connection and enhancement of accessibility to safe water, we are going to bring water to over 189,000 people in Karonga and surrounding areas,” said Mwenifumbo.

The project, which is expected to be finished by March, is aimed at rahabilitating, upgrading and expanding the old water supply system and will be pumping over 1.3 million litres of water per hour.

The Board has since installed a new 30 million litre treatment plant.

“This is a tremendous improvement over the current facility’s maximum output of 12 million litres per day," said Mwenifumbo.

Paramount Chief Kyungu of Karonga and Chitipa commended government and NRWB for committing to bring safe water to the people of Karonga.

"This will give us access to potable water unlike in the past where we had persistent water shortages. I would like to appeal to communities, especially where the new infrastructure has been built, to jealously guard it against vandalism," Kyungu said.

Director for Water Supply Services in the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Prince Mleta, said the ministry, directed by government policies, is committed to ensuring universal access to potable water by 2030, hence the project.

“We will soon be embarking on Rumphi Water Supply Project and another one at Chintheche to ensure that Malawians across the country have access to clean and safe water by 2030,"said Kamlete.

The project, worth US$ 26.7 million, is financed by Malawi Government, who pumped in US$ 1.7 million, OPEC Fund with US$ 15 million and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa which has provided US$ 10 million.