Blantyre Water Board is a parastatal organization established and reconstituted under the Malawi Water Works Act No. 17 of 1995 to supply potable water for commercial, industrial, institutional and domestic use in the supply area of Blantyre City and surrounding areas. Its mission is to provide reliable and affordable water supply services to customers whilst effectively contributing to the development of the national economy and sustenance of the environment.
Currently, the Board is supplying water to about 1.4 million people within its supply area, which includes the City and other areas such as Bvumbwe, Chileka, Lunzu, Chiradzulu, Limbe and Mapanga.
BWB extracts its water from Shire River (an outlet of Lake Malawi) at Walker’s Ferry about 40 kilometres away and 800m below Blantyre City. As BWB’s main treatment plant, it currently produces 96 million litres per day, which is 95% of the total water production, with the rest being produced from Mudi dam and boreholes.
The completion of the new water source project from Likhubula in Mulanje should have decreased Walkers Ferry production to 79% of the total production. Mudi Dam currently produces 5 million litres per day and Likhubula source was expected to produce 20 million litres per day.
Robert Hanjahanja was appointed as CEO of BWB in September 2021 and he has previously worked with the Ministry of Works and Supplies as a Water Engineer, Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief as Water and Sanitation Coordinator, LWB as DTS, Habitat for Humanity as Country Director, USAID- SUWASA in Kenya as a Utility Specialist, SRWB as CEO, Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development as Chief Director and USAID-EWASH in Nigeria as Deputy Chief of Party.
