Tag Archives: Lilongwe Water Board (LWB)

Human Rights, Law and order, Malawi

LWB officers to face prosecution for sleeping on duty-MHRC

Maravi Post Reporter

By Brian Longwe

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has demanded prosecution of all officers from Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) whose negligence of duty resulted into providing its customers with stale water.

This comes after the commission conducted a thorough investigation to discover the motive that led to Area 18 residents consuming sewage water in the month of July last year.

Public Hearing report that MHRC has released on the matter discovered that the saga was caused in the area following the blockage of man-hole out of which the sewage was flowing.

“The Lilongwe Water Board pipe taking water to the affected area burst. Officers only stopped the flow of water but never maintained the burst water pipe, hence, letting the spillage to occur” reads the report.

The report also faulted Lilongwe City Council and Malawi housing Corporation for leaving a broken sewer line unattended to, for a long time.

While presenting the report during press briefing in Lilongwe, Commissioner Bertha Sefu spit fire on Lilongwe Water Board officers’ act of failing to maintain their broken pipe in the affected area, calling the behaviour unconstitutional.

Sefu therefore called upon Director of Public Prosecution and the Law Commission of Malawi to prosecute all authorities responsible for the saga and make sure that the victims are respectively compensated.

Sefu added “in this case, people’s rights to clean and safe drinking water, right to good health and right to human dignity were violated. The officers committed an offence of criminal negligence in line with section 148 of the Water Resources Authority or any other law expediently.”

In an interview, the chairperson for the Area 18 residents Leonard Phiri commended the commission for pursuing the case further in regards of welfare of the victims.

Phiri explained “the case is in the hands of Lilongwe high court and we expect that the truth should prevail.”

“This caos affected 1500 individuals equivalent to 350 households in the area, and we expect each household to be compensated with MK4 million, failing to do so, the law shall take its course.” Phiri said.

In a related development, MHRC will soon release a report concerning oil spillage by Sunseed manufacturing company in Gongweya village, Lilongwe.

Business

Lilongwe Water Board introduces pre-paid water metering system

Maravi Post Reporter

The Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) recently introduced pre-paid water metering system to improve its service delivery. The metering system is an upgrade from the post-paid metering system, which the Board has been using since its establishment in 1947.

The pre-paid metering system is one of the innovations the Board is implementing to, among others, enhance revenue collection and eradicate illegal water usage by simplifying water supply services.

Through the pre-paid system, a customer will be paying for water upfront before using it. The system is similar to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) pre-paid metering system.

In addition, the pre-paid water metering system promotes best water demand management initiatives, as customers will be able to maximize water usage, according to the amount of credit in their pre-paid account, by curbing inessential or low-use values through price or non-price measures.

The pre-paid meters are programmed to stop the flow of water once the pre-paid credit is exhausted, and alerts a customer when he/she has low water credit. The meters have also a facility to enables customers to view the history of their water usage, to better manage it.

HOW THE METER OPERATES

The meter operates using a Customer Interface Unit (CIU) through wireless communication. The STS decryption connection between the meter and the CIU provides a convenient interface to the customer. Customers will be using the CIU device to recharge their water meters and also access information like token acceptance and rejection, credit status and historical usage data.

The water meter’s design makes it immune to any tampering and fraud.

The facility details:

• Pre-paid meters will come with Customer Interface Unit (CIU).
• Customers will use the CIU to top-up their account within the radius of 2 kilometers as long as there is no interference.
• All pre-paid meters will come with a start-up credit (that will be recovered from subsequent customer purchases).
• Once the start-up credit is exhausted, customers will be required to buy a 20-digits water credit token and top-up their accounts using any First Merchant Bank (FMB) branch.
• Customers that have unsettled water bills shall be deducted 60 percent of every top-up they will make until the bill is settled.

System Benefits:

• The pre-paid metering system will eradicate delays in bill delivery.
• Improve bill accuracy.
• Instill self-management of consumption by customers.
• Assist in immediate detection of leakages.
• Assist timely and speedy faults reporting.

Meanwhile, first phase of the pre-paid meter installation is targeting institutional customers before it rolls out to other Lilongwe water Board customers.

Lifestyle, Top News

A luta continua: Lilongwe Water Board funds DPP’s blue night with MK10 million, gives NIS MK1.15 million

Maravi Post correspondent

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost) – The cash mismanagement problems in Malawi continue to bedevil the nation as now emerges allegations that Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) made a questionable financial support amounting to MK10 million to the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s southern region blue night which was held in November, 2016.

LWB funds DPP’s blue night to the tune of MK10 million

The utility body even went further to make a MK1.15 million payment to the state spy agency, National Intelligence Services (NIS) through one of its officers.

The questionable expenditure comes amid reports that Lilongwe residents have been suffering from persistent dry taps for the past months. Continue reading A luta continua: Lilongwe Water Board funds DPP’s blue night with MK10 million, gives NIS MK1.15 million →