Jumbe: brought the motion |
The Malawi National Assembly has
adopted a motion that will enable Water Boards provide water to rural areas
through drilling and management of boreholes.
Salima Central legislator, Felix
Jumbe presented the motion seeking amendment of Water Works Act of 1995 of Act
No. 17 Section 6 which gives Water Boards jurisdiction to do all water works
management and distribution in designated urban areas.
“That in order to address the water challenges which
rural communities experience on account of poor management of water facilities
in the rural areas, and bearing in mind that almost all corners on this country
are covered by Water Boards established through an Act of Parliament, this
House resolves that Private Members Bill by the Hon. Member for Salima Central
be drafted to amend section 6 of Water Works Act No.17 of 1995 in order to
allow the Water Boards to drill, manage boreholes in the rural areas” reads the motion for Hon. Jumbe who is
also Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Irrigation and
Water Development
Speaking in an interview on
Thursday evening after presenting the motion, Jumbe said his motion followed
his own investigations to establish the main cause of current disparity in
provision of water among urban dwellers and rural area population by Water
Boards.
He therefore said after
establishing that Water Boards were restricted at formation level from
going into the villages he feels that amending Water Works Act to
allow Water Boards to start providing water to rural areas will allow many Malawians have access
to clean water.
“People in the rural areas are
not drinking clean water and if they have a borehole, it is done through the
Department of Water which has no capacity to maintain the boreholes even to go
and do the sampling of the drilled water in order to see if people are drinking
really clean water. All those things are not being done.” He observed
“But when you look at the
capacity of the Water Boards in terms of their skills and diversity they have
that capacity to set up section within their jurisdiction that would be looking
at drilling the boreholes and maintenance of boreholes with the rural
communities being the customers that they will be serving.” Continued Jumbe
He assured that
Water Boards will work easily with water communities in rural areas because
communities are already making savings and contributions towards maintenance of
boreholes.
Hon. Jumbe also lamented that people
in the rural areas are being sidelined in many ways and that the development has created two economies, where, one is for the rural areas and another for
the people in the semi urban and cities.
“These two economies are running
parallel and you find that the facilities that are found in urban areas are
different from those that are offered into rural areas. One good example is the
access to clean water.” He said
The motion received overwhelming
support from both sides of the House as members noted that people in the rural
areas are not getting clean water and that in most cases members of Parliament
are shouldering burden of drilling and managing the maintenance of boreholes.
Following the adoption of this
motion, now, Salima Central Legislator will be required to come up with a
proposed amendment bill to amend section 6 of Water Works Act to allow Water Boards
drill, manage and also look at standards in drilling of boreholes.
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