The Natural Water Resources Authority (NWRA) has said that there will be no exceptions in illegal water supply systems closure.
NWRA public relations officer Masozi Kasambala made the remarks when he was responding to our questionnaire on whether the authority will spare some public institutions like schools and health facilities which have resorted to drilling boreholes for clean water.
Last month, NWRA announced that it shall close all boreholes and all water surface abstraction that do not have proper authorization from the Authority by 24 November 2023.
“In short, institutions or individuals that have illegal water supply systems such as boreholes that have no authorisation from the Authority must come to register them by 24th November 2023.
“As an Authority, we shall make an assessment whether such boreholes should still subsist or not. For a borehole to be authorised, there are a number of factors that are considered, which include failure by a particular water board to consistently supply water, need for other tasks such as gardening, construction, water quality etc.
“Once a permit is issued, there are periodic reviews to ascertain if such an individual or institution still requires such a borehole. You will appreciate that the recent spot check inspections we undertook in our cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu, discovered that 75 percent of the 44 boreholes that were sampled are biologically contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
“So as an Authority, we are duty bound to prevent any water related catastrophe. This exercise is aimed at protecting the citizenry, sustaining water resources for all, and creating sanity in the water sector.
“So all those that are involved in drilling and constructing boreholes without the authorisation of the authority are indulging themselves in an illegality and the law will surely catch-up with them after the lapse of the 24th November grace period. What they need to do now is to register all their boreholes with the authority for either guidance or regularisation,” said Kasambala
