Malawi’s five-year Rural Roads and Water Infrastructure Development Programme has suffered a setback due to funding challenges as Treasury has to date allocated K2 billion of the K163 billion budget, it has emerged.

In a brief to the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Public Infrastructure at Parliament Building in Lilongwe yesterday on progress of projects under the ministry, Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture Principal Secretary Esmie Kainja said the project requires K163 billion to be implemented across all districts over five years, translating to K32.6 billion per year.

She said: “This year, the ministry asked for K10 billion to start carrying out works, but government has only allocated us K2 billion.

“The project is actually a presidential initiative and we worked with the Office of the President and Cabinet [OPC] to develop the project.”

Kainja said each district was briefed on the project because President Lazarus Chakwera met chiefs who complained about poor water access and roads.

“It is a need-based programme, coming from chiefs. The cost that came was about K163 billion. An allocation was made and we were given K2 billion this year. For all the districts, we only have K2 billion,” she lamented.

Part of the bad patch on the M1 between Mzuzu and Karonga in the Northern Region

To ensure impact, Kainja said the ministry has selected few districts where it can initiate projects using the available K2 billion while still engaging Treasury.

The programme is meant to facilitate the construction of bridges, improvement of road network and water projects to improve access to clean water in rural areas.

The ministry’s director of rural development Chrissy Chiumia said considering the country’s economy, it will be difficult to implement the project in five years.

She said the ministry has since opted to carry out the project in phases and that in the Southern Region, Chikwawa and Chiradzulu districts are the beneficiaries after Cyclone Freddy damaged roads.

In the Central Region, Dowa will benefit with from a water project while in the Northern Region, part of the K2 billion will go towards two roads in Chitipa District.

Responding to the presentation, committee chairperson Enock Phale called on Treasury to pay attention to the programme, saying it is crucial to the development of rural areas.

Meanwhile, governance commentator Moses Mkandawire has described as a joke Treasury’s allocation of K2 billion for a programme requiring a minimum of K32 billion annually.

He said with such an approach, the country will not be able to achieve most of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to improve people’s welfare, including universal access to safe water by 2030.

Said Mkandaire: “We maybe ambitious, but the reality is that government doesn’t have money. Money that government is able to generate is going towards salaries, pensions and debt repayment. ”

Malawi Government is currently in financial distress worsened by lack of direct budget support, foreign exchange shortages and the struggle to make balance of payment. The government has since resorted to borrowing to fill the budget deficit and is currently in debt distress.

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