2012 Reports

Water and Sanitation Needs Assessment for Blantyre City, Malawi

Maoulidi, Moumie

Malawi is a country endowed with a large network of surface water bodies, including Lake Malawi (28,750 km2), Lake Malombe (303 km2), Lake Chilwa (683 km2) and numerous rivers. Yet, the Blantyre Water Board (BWB) has been struggling to provide regular water supply to the residents of the country’s commercial capital, Blantyre, mainly because rapid population growth is outstripping supply. The city of Blantyre relies on two extraction and treatment plants for water supply, Walker’s Ferry and Mudi Dam, but these two plants were designed to produce water for a much smaller population than the estimated 2012 population of 783,296 people. Sanitation is particularly problematic in low-income areas where pit latrine and septic tank emptying services have until recently been irregular. The introduction of some promising new pumping technologies is alleviating this situation.