Blantyre Water Board (BWB) in partnership with the Blantyre City Council is venturing into a K130 billion project aimed at improving water accessibility and sanitation in the city.

The Urban Water and Sanitation project, to be funded by the World Bank at a cost of $130 million, will involve the rehabilitation and setting up of new treatment plants and sewage collection sites.

Speaking after leading a World Bank mission on a tour of the proposed project sites, BWB chief executive officer Robert Hanjahanja said most of the organisations equipment is old and needs replacement.

He said: “We plan to install new tanks, bring in new metres, upgrade the main transmission line at Chileka, mostly to improve on operational efficiency and reduce on loses through non-revenue water.”

The project, which is expected to start in April 2023, will also enable consistency of supply, particularly on how much water is supplied per given minute or hour.

The World Bank mission toured the project sites to appreciate the need for the project and assess requirements.

The council’s director of town planning Costly Chanza said the project will improve sanitation in the city as it will help the council rehabilitate some of its sewage collection sites and sewage pipes.

According to the World Bank global study of 2017 on the economics of water scarcity, a single water interruption in an urban firm such as BWB can make it lose its revenue by more than eight percent. The study further says if that firm is in the informal sector, as many are in the developing countries, sales can decline by 35 percent, ruining livelihoods and stagnating economic growth.

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