Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera vowed to ensure that Malawians have access to clean and potable water and to that effect, he created a standalone Ministry—the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. That move was a master stroke as Grow Green, a Malawian-owned company has partnered with the Malawi government to rehabilitate 50,000 boreholes, plant 29,000 new boreholes, employ over 5,000 people and manufacture 4 million water filters to be utilised in Malawi.
The total investment for the entire project is pegged at $400 million or K720 billion for 20 years.
Grow Green Director, Fabian Collen said the project will also set up an emergency service repair system to ensure broken boreholes do not take long to be repaired so that rural women do not walk long distances to fetch water.
“We are still in the project development phase, but we are happy about the endorsement from the Malawi Government. We are creating the last set of documentation, and we are expecting to commence our operations next year,” said Collen.
Malawi’s leader of delegation at COP 28 who is also Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Michael Usi, said the project will immensely alleviate the water challenges in rural areas.
“It means the problem of accessing potable water will not be as it is now because more people will benefit. This investor is serious and all we need to do is expedite processes on our part I am happy that the attorney general, solicitor general and others have played a critical role in this process. We have also told the investors not to parade any excuses once we have concluded processes on our side,” said Usi.
Grow Green is a subsidiary of Mota Engil Company.
