The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Abida Sidik Mia, accountable and transparent to the people of Malawi as she has always been has put out a brief statement highlighting the activities that she undertook in the United Arab Emirates during the by-gone Conference of the parties (Cop 28).
“I had the privilege of joining the Malawian delegation, led by Dr. Michael Usi, Minister of Climate Change and Natural Resources, at the United Arab Emirates-hosted Conference of the Parties (COP 28) from November 30th to December 12th, 2023. The delegation was sent on this mission under the directive of His Excellency, President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera,” informed Mia.
She disclosed all the meetings that she had in her capacity as Minister of Water and what was striking was the introduction of electric motorcycles which has the potential to create more jobs and its attendant borehole that the company intending to introduce the electric motorcycles intend to bring.
“We had a bilateral meeting with Bob-Eco, a company that manufactures electric motorcycles that are designed to be environmentally friendly. With a focus on affordability, functionality, efficiency and performance, the Model X is tailored for developing countries. Bob-Eco has been working in several African countries and expressed willingness to work in Malawi and provide 50,000 electric motorbikes at very affordable prices. The company also pledged to drill 500 boreholes to improve our people’s access to potable water. My Ministry will provide the cost estimates and geophysical information for the drilling process,” said Mia.
Mia also disclosed among other things that she had a bilateral meeting with Grow Green, a Maltese based company.
“During this bilateral meeting, Grow Green announced that it will invest US$400 Million (equivalent of MWK720 billion Kwacha) in a water supply programme over a period of 20 years, positively impacting 29 districts in Malawi and benefiting approximately 10 million residents. The key activities to be undertaken under this programme are: rehabilitation of 50,000 boreholes; installation of filters on 29,000 operational boreholes; employment of approximately 5,000 individuals; manufacturing and distributing of over 4 million household filters nationwide and lastly, catchment management and forest restoration to safeguard natural resources for current and future generations by promoting sustainable use of existing forests.”
