WaterWorX project: WOP Blantyre Malawi

• Malawi
• Malawi - Blantyre Water Board (BWB)
• € 736,762

WaterWorX project: WOP Blantyre Water Board

In June 2023 VEI and BWB signed the partnership agreement for a new WOP.
Discussions with BWB on a possible WOP were initiated during the end of WWX phase 1 and revitalized at the end of 2022 when BWB came to the final stages of negotiation on World Bank (WB) and African Development Bank (AfDB) investment projects.

Due to the focus of the investment projects being operational, the existing knowledge at BWB of VEI’s work and IFIs’ valuation of existing WOPs, BWB did not hesitate to get in touch with VEI to establish a WOP and therewith secure the investment projects.

For VEI, an evaluation of BWB made it clear that there is a huge need for capacity building and technical assistance around the focus of the investment projects and thus a draft project plan has been set up.
The main area to focus on for BWB on the road to sustainable operations is an increase of revenues.
This can only be achieved through a mix of capacity building in the form of peer to peer learning within BWB and improvements and adherence to the policies, procedures and systems in place. The increase of revenues will be accomplished by a decrease in NRW, improvements to the billing and collection and improved asset management (GIS and meter management). 

All the above activities are in line with the WB and AfDB investment projects which are lined up to start mid 2023-beginning 2024 and will be of a great support to ensure the infrastructural investments projects will be sustainably operated after implementation.

Next to the above some optional outcomes have been identified which could assist in other aspects with the WB project and/or water supply issues currently faced caused by climate change, excessive/decreased river flows, etc. The optional outcomes are covering water production, human resources and project development.

For more information, please contact:

Dana van der Velden, Project Manager Malawi
dana.vandervelden@vei.nl