By Dean Chisambo

Minister of water and sanitation Abida Mia has advised the donor partners to have sustainable clean water supply in rural areas especially where the water is too scarcity.

Mia made the remarks during the launch of Professionalising the Management of Malawi’s Rural Water Supply Service which the Water for People organisation conducted the study in the country concerning the clean water supply system on Wednesday in Lilongwe.

Mia said her ministry is looking forward to work hand in hand with donors and advise them to look where the system should be going and also the improvement of the actual system so that it can be sustainable when the climate chokes happen.

She said:”We could be expecting heavy rains and flooding again, so when we work in collaboration, we can work better.”

Mia added that high population rate in the country has contributed to the shortage of clean water in the country especially in rural areas saying they will continue working with donors to deal with cholera outbreak across the country.

In his sentiment, Water for People Country Director Ulemu Chiluzi said the launch is about providing clean water but also having management body that will be sustainable to ensure that water that they provide and the investment that they make is able to sustain itself interms of operation and maintenance for longer period of time.

Chiluzi said:”he whole idea is we are focusing on rural and market centres and interms of mandate Blantyre and Lilongwe water board they have got a mandate interms of peri-urban and cities while the other water boards they have other mandate.

“We are looking for areas that they are not working and trying to see where would be the best model to support those systems to be sustainable in a long run.”

Chiluzi added that they are trying to explore different models to ensure that the system is working effectively and efficiently including extending the system to be mandated by Blantyre water board and other water boards that provide facilities and making other arrangement to ensure that they are are able to come together and look at the model inorder to charge a tariff that will be sustainable in longer in operational and maintenance.

The study which the Water for People has conducted highlighted that borehole are the primary improved water source utilised across Malawi with a population of 64.5% especially in rural areas with the population of 73.9% a comparatively small proportion of the population access to a piped water supply facility with a connection to their dwelling 2.4% across Malawi especially in rural areas 0.6%.