By Ivy Makwale Kapaswiche
Lilongwe, February 16, Mana: Minister of Water and Sanitation, Abida Mia said her Ministry will roll out several projects that will ensure Malawians in various areas have access to clean and potable water.
Mia, who is also Member of Parliament for Chikwawa Mkombezi, made the remarks following a well-documented number of the country’s citizens that have little even others without access to clean water.
“My Ministry is aware of the challenges the country’s citizens are going through in regards to access to clean and safe water and we are looking into it.
“Let me assure Malawians that my Ministry will facilitate the drilling of boreholes and initiate special projects that will contribute to easing water problems,” she pointed out.
Mia added that government was committed to making sure there was countrywide coverage of water as it is key to good health and wellbeing.
“We promise to bring more industrial pumps for gravity process projection that will ease the perennial water problem that the country faces, as you are aware without clean and easily accessible water families and communities are locked in poverty for generations.
‘For instance, children drop out of schools and parents struggle to make a living and Chakwera’s led administration is striving to solve all these,” she noted
Executive Director for Rain Water Harvest Association of Malawi, Harvey Nthala applauded the initiative because it has been long overdue and establishing a standalone Ministry responsible for water and sanitation would immeasurably help Malawians.
“Water is life because apart from being used on household level for various activities, it is at the centre of our country’s economy.
“We believe this is a very big opportunity to move forward with the sustainable goal number s6 which is looking at increasing access to water for all by the year 2030,” he stated.
Director urged the new Ministry to embrace all means of supplying water to come up with a basket of solutions for all these water challenges, to make sure no Malawian in this era should be suffering from lack of safe and clean water when the country has abundant different sources of water.
“If you look at Malawi as a country, there are some areas which are supplied by boreholes, rivers, and wells but there some areas where either none of these are not accessible.
“ In some areas, you may find out that boreholes have salty water as a result people are accessing water from unsafe sources, therefore this new ministry has to come up with various solutions to overturn such problems” he observed.
