Water Should Be A 'Right' In Malawi -CSR, Tearfund

Making water a ‘right’ will make Malawi achieve the goal of allowing citizens enjoy full access to clean and safe water says Centre for Social Research (CSR) and Tearfund.

The two institutions through the Climate Justice project funded by Scottish Government are highlighting challenges that the country continues to face in the water sector due to absence of legislation that can form basis for stakeholders in the sector to hold Government accountable on provision of water to every corner of the country.

“In the two projects that we are working on it’s very clear that the water sector is not doing very well.” observes CSR Deputy Director, Prof. Blessings Chinsinga

“One of the reasons that we found is that water is not designated as a right, as a result the stakeholders that are active in this sector do not have a firm basis to hold the Government accountable.” He said

Painting the picture of the water situation in the country, Chinsinga indicated that on paper, Malawi's water coverage is 84 percent but on the ground, water access is far much lower estimated to be between 50 to 60 percent. He said this is the case because most existing water facilities like boreholes that were drilled in the villages are not functional.

“At any given time we have only about 30 to 50 percent of these water facilities functioning.” noted Chinsinga adding that this is clear indication that there is a big problem in the water sector

He narrated that in some areas people particularly women are forced to walk more than two kilometers to fetch clean water from boreholes while some gets water from unprotected sources mostly from rivers and wells.

He then challenged that the problem of access to water will remain, unless, water is recognized as a right.

“Therefore we feel that if water was to be legislated as a right then maybe, Government would in a special way be forced to make sure that performance in the water sector is improved through adequate funding.” He emphasized

The CSR and Tearfund have embarked on policy dialogue on the basis of projects they are implementing within the framework of Climate Justice with purpose of engaging with and stimulate debate among key stakeholders on water as a ‘right.’

Recently, the two institutions had a policy dialogue with Members of Parliament (MPs) with ultimate goal of creating a critical mass of MPs so as to forge a long term partnership with CSR and Tearfund to popularize the Climate Justice perspective to dealing with issues of quality water access and climate change issues in Malawi. 

During the engagement, Prof. Chinsinga urged legislators to consider enforcing the existing pieces of policies and legislation on water including the policy commitment by Government that it will provide water within 500 meter radius.