Africa-Press – Malawi. The Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) has accused President Lazarus Chakwera Tonse government of being arrogant on its plans proceeding to implement water tariff hike.
In a statement signed by CAMA, Executive Director, John Kapito states that the consumer body objects the proposed Water Tariff increase as it never worked in a year ago as they promised and committed themselves to Service Level Agreements with specific key performance Indicators which were subject to review before any water tariff adjustment.
Kapito said it wrong for government to propose another new tariff when these Water Boards are failing to deliver on their commitments. He added that CAMA through its own initiative carried out assessments on the agreed Service Level Agreements or Key Performance indicators and discovered that the Water Boards failed to implement or deliver on all of its own commitments and the Ministry of Water was continuously reminded of these failures by Water Boards.
Kapito observes that to increase water tariffs is an indication of uncaring government and the proposal of a new tariff increase with the current failures by the Water Boards .
He said the huge water tariff increase in 2021 have failed to deliver consistent and continuous water supply to Consumers and Consumers were left with dry taps throughout the year.
“Water Boards never provided adequate information as a result of the poor delivery of water and neither did they provide alternative water supplies either through use of bowsers as agreed, the quality of water from all Water Boards was poor mixed with mud and other foreign objects,” said Kapito.
He added further that consumers were unable to get water connections due to Water Boards failures to provide meters and pipes and the Water Boards failed to reduce non-water revenue losses as a result of pure negligence and carelessness.
Kapito said Water Boards are still owed huge sums of money by government Departments despite committing to put in place systems such as prepaid meters in all Government Departments. He said consumers were shocked that after accepting and paying a high water tariff the services of the Water Boards were unsatisfactory.
Kapito added that the desire by the Water Boards to resort to tariff increase without addressing the many inefficiencies within their institutions is a mockery and punishment to poor Consumers.
He observes further that Tonse government is aware about the lack of accountability and mismanagement in most of the Water Boards and Consumers strongly believe that the Water Boards need to carry out a number of reforms that can bring efficiencies before demanding a tariff increase.
He therefore said tariff increases alone will not improve the operations of these Water Boards as they have failed to perform over the years despite operating in a market where they face no competition and the hike is a bad timing as the country is already experiencing high cost of living. This comes as Cholera outbreak still claiming many lives due to poor hygiene and sanitation couple with shortage of food.
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