Africa-Press – Malawi. Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) chairperson Frank Mwenifumbo says he is excited with the major step taken in the Karonga Water Supply Project has taken place on Lake Malawi, where engineers have completed laying the new raw water pipeline from the shore to about 1 kilometre into the lake by floating and sinking.
Once completed, the $26 million project being implemented by the Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) is expected to boost the supply of potable water in Karonga town and surrounding areas where currently demand exceeds supply.
A statement posted on NRWB Facebook page said the work began yesterday at 4am as the pipes were joined, floated, and sunk into the waters, an activity that lasted for about 24 hours until this morning.
Reads in part the statement: “The new pipeline will be able to abstract one million, three hundred and fifty thousand litres of water per hour for treatment at the new 30 million litre treatment plant. The current plant could only produce a maximum of 12 million litres per day.”
By 2035, an estimated 184, 000 residents are expected to benefit from the project which is financed by Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, OPEC Fund for International Development and the Malawi Government.
Mwenifumbo said the most significant part of the project which has lasted about 2 and a half years was the laying of the pipe which runs to the deepest ends of the lake.
Said Mwenifumbo: “It is a state of the art semi-automated system which has reached most parts of the rural population and we are grateful to the contractor. Remember, President Lazarus Chakwera also advised us to take into consideration the rural masses in this project. The president is expected to commission it between April and May this year.”
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