Learning from water supply failures in Malawi

The Lilongwe Water Board is the sole water supply authority in Malawi’s capital city. However, its service suffered from inadequate response to system and community problems and lack of transparency in water billing. In response to a request for assistance from the community, WaterAid Malawi developed a strategic partnership with the Lilongwe Water Board, aimed at improving management of water services in unplanned low-income neighbourhoods.

A paper from WaterAid Malawi describes its partnership with the Lilongwe Water Board and a local non-governmental organisation – the Centre for Community Organization and Development (CCODE).

WaterAid research indicated that the system to distribute water through water kiosks was not working. Poor households owed huge sums to the Lilongwe Water Board – the monopoly water provider. They were paying far too much: prices at communal kiosks in low-income areas were twice as high as those in high-income areas. Charging systems were inconsistent and billing was not transparent. Some households paid equal monthly fees for different levels of consumption while others were paying per bucket.

Political and traditional leaders corruptly controlled kiosk management committees and failed to pass on funds they collected from communities to the Lilongwe Water Board. The private operators who were able to pay their utility bills resold water to poor people at high and unregulated tariffs. Many meters were vandalised but even those still working were often not read for over a year. The water board charged customers for estimated, not actual, consumption. Without consultation with users, the utility factored in arrears into water bills to cover money misused by community leaders.

Further problems included:

• illegal installation of boreholes, often supported by local politicians keen to win votes
• failure by the utility to check water quality
• dependence of poor people on unsafe sources like rivers: when kiosks were disconnected, community members used unsafe water while extremely poor people depended on it all the time
• high leakage rates: the utility did not carry out routine inspections and reports of leakages were not acted upon
• failure to manage supply: the utility had no boundary meters to monitor inflows and outflows of water and could not know the true extent of leakages and illegal connections.

The partnership spent 18 months preparing a plan to sustainably, efficiently and transparently provide safe, affordable and reliable water supply to informal settlements. The public/private/civil society partnership is producing change. The utility now regards itself as a public service provider with obligations to consult users and to extend the network to unserved communities, while also embracing private sector principles to improve the efficiency of billing, debt collection and reduction of water losses

Reform has also involved:

• establishing a focal point within the Lilongwe Water Board to whom community kiosk users could take their grievances: the Kiosk Management Unit regulates prices and promotes timely reporting of faults and prompt action to fix them
• WaterAid providing technical and financial advice and funding to rehabilitate communal water kiosks, replace meters, construct meter boxes and improve drainage facilities at kiosks
• building CCODE’s capacity to mobilise communities’ capacities to identify kiosk management options, settle debts, monitor the utility and promote hygiene education.

Source(s):
‘Managing communal water kiosks in Malawi: Experiences in water supply management in poor urban settlements in Lilongwe’, by WaterAid Malawi, April 2008 (PDF) Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 1 March 2009

Further Information:
WaterAid in Malawi
Amina House
P/Bag 364, Lilongwe 3
Malawi

Tel: + 265 1750606
Fax: + 265 1750608

WaterAid in Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi

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