The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Honourable Abida Sidik Mia, paid a working visit to the area of Chief Kayembe in Dowa, where she inspected the Proffessionalised Repair and Maintenance (R&M) programme; implemented by Beyond Water, on the 6th of September 2023.
With most of the community hand-held water pumps in Malawi deemed non-functional, the repair and maintenance service restores these vital investments and secure long term access to water for rural populations.
The repair and maintenance service develops licensing agreements with District Councils to establish regular service schedules, repairs within a fixed time frame, uptime performance, guaranteed payments for local pump mechanics and support to communities for day to day water point management.
Communities are only required to make an annual contribution of about MK85,000 per year for the services. By incentivising stakeholders at every level, the approach fosters a collective responsibility for maintaining pump functionality, ultimately ensuring sustained access to water for the communities.
In her reaction, the Minister said the government in conjunction with its stakeholders are now fixing and upgrading water points in readiness for the rainy season to contain water borne diseases and as such this programme is a positive development towards the same.
“A lot of Water infrastructure was destroyed by the Cyclone Freddy earlier this year, these structures must be rehabilitated in time to ensure that communities are served with clean and potable water”
The Minister applauded Beyond Water for the impact that the programme is registering in the communities, as the waiting time to fix a broken borehole in the area has been reduced from 4 weeks to just a maximum of 72 hours.
Country Director for Pump Aid Beyond Water Simon Msukwa, mentioned that the programme will address WASH challenges in targeted districts of Dowa,Kasungu and Mchinji.
Pump Aid Beyond Water, offers a comprehensive range of transformative services and solutions to address the diverse water needs in Malawi.
