House Adopts Motion To Allow Water Boards Drill, Manage Boreholes In Rural Areas

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.