The Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) says it is through with prepaid meter connections for all government institutions in the southern region in order to deal with the problem outstanding unpaid bills by such institutions.
Chief Executive Officer for SRWB, Duncan Chimbamba, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that it is only the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) which is remaining and K1.6 billion is needed to facilitate installation of the prepaid meters.
He added that unpaid water bills were crippling the operations of the board hence the initiative to switch to prepaid meter connections.
"We have connected about 20 thousand customers with prepaid meters. We are procuring more meters and if everything goes well, we should be able to connect all our customers in the southern region before June," explained Chimbamba.
Chimbamba however said the board needs more funds to enable it to do technical works in places like Liwonde, Luchenza and Likhubula where people access water only for six hours a day.
PAC Chairperson, Mark Botomani, urged government to assist SRWB to get funds in order to reach out to many people with safe water as the country is grappling with Cholera.
"If people are getting water for only six hours, where are they getting water in the remaining eighteen hours? It means they are getting them from unsafe and hazardous sources," lamented Botomani.
