Chikaonda says communities own and manage the kiosks as cooperatives. She says the community, however, is yet to form an association that will run the kiosk.
The Blantyre Water Board is the sole supplier of piped water in Blanyre. The board sells the water to the kiosks at .44 tambala per cubic metre. But the kiosks resell the water at K5 per pail.
That's a mark-up of more than 1,000 percent.
Every Friday, Chikaonda says, she deposits the revenue she collects from the sales into a pool account. She says the communities pay the water board the total bills accrued at the agreed fee of K0.44 tambala per cubic metre.
Chikaonda, however, says the officials managing the community's water account do not remit the money to the water board.
She says failure to remit the money to the board has resulted in the BWB disconnecting water from communities.
Alex Longwe lives in Mbayani township in Blantyre. He says poor communities have become the victims of other people's greed and corruption.
“K5 per pail is quite a lot for this neighbourhood to pay,” he says. “Yet other areas pay K2 for the same amount of water.”
Longwe says the committees managing the water accounts abuse the money they collect.
He says they also don't pay the water board.
Chikaonda says political parties also interfere in the management of water kiosks.
She says that nobody accounts for the revenue and that the kiosks do not issue water tickets to show the amount of water the community consumes.
This, she says, is open to abuse by the party officials and by those managing the kiosks on behalf of the communities.
“On good days the kiosk makes more than K10, 000,” she said, “but then recently, political party members came to demand for money to go to a football game - despite a recent warning to party supporters against such practices by a Member of Parliament for the area recently.”
BWB Public Relations Officer Flonie Musasa says the board runs about 30 kiosks out of the 350 water kiosks within the city of Blantyre.
He says that Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Blantyre City Assembly (BCA) built some of these kiosks.
Musasa says the kiosks owners are overcharging poor communities.She says local politics are affecting water kiosks operations because officials abuse the revenue collected. Musasa says the kiosks within the city have not paid about K16 million due to the board.
“Thousands of innocent poor people suffered from the disconnections,” said Musasa.
According to BWB Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the year ending 30 June 2005, the cash flow remained poor during the year mainly because of unwillingness to pay back by some customers and government institutions.
.
Moffatt Disi is the administrator for the BCA. He says the assembly is overseeing about 200 kiosks and it only gives advice to BWB kiosk operators on how to run them.
He says conflict between the DPP and UDF has aggravated the water problems in some townships of Blantyre.
BWB disconnected many kiosks because the operators owed the BWB more than K60 million in water bills. Acting Chief Executive Owen Kankhulungo says that most kiosks in Blantyre are failing to remit water bills. He also told Capital Radio that there are meter validation reports that show some corrupt practices whereby ex-employees and current employees are conniving to steal poor people's money through incorrect meter reading.
The problems affecting the operations of kiosks are not unique to Blantyre. Harry Jeweta is a committee member of Kauma Water Association in Lilongwe, he says his new committee is servicing a K2-million bill which the previous committee accumulated last year.
He says the committee is paying K150,000 every month on the accumulated bills and K250,000 for all the current bills that are under the association.
Jeweta says the committee has 15 committee members. The committee pays each member K1, 700 as monthly allowances.
Jeweta said the committee opened an account at the National Bank Lilongwe where the money is kept.
“We don't have a specific person who goes to the bank to bank our collections,” Jeweta says. “Anybody is free to go and bank the money.”
The Blantyre Water Board is the sole supplier of piped water in Blanyre. The board sells the water to the kiosks at .44 tambala per cubic metre. But the kiosks resell the water at K5 per pail.
That's a mark-up of more than 1,000 percent.
Every Friday, Chikaonda says, she deposits the revenue she collects from the sales into a pool account. She says the communities pay the water board the total bills accrued at the agreed fee of K0.44 tambala per cubic metre.
Chikaonda, however, says the officials managing the community's water account do not remit the money to the water board.
She says failure to remit the money to the board has resulted in the BWB disconnecting water from communities.
Alex Longwe lives in Mbayani township in Blantyre. He says poor communities have become the victims of other people's greed and corruption.
“K5 per pail is quite a lot for this neighbourhood to pay,” he says. “Yet other areas pay K2 for the same amount of water.”
Longwe says the committees managing the water accounts abuse the money they collect.
He says they also don't pay the water board.
Chikaonda says political parties also interfere in the management of water kiosks.
She says that nobody accounts for the revenue and that the kiosks do not issue water tickets to show the amount of water the community consumes.
This, she says, is open to abuse by the party officials and by those managing the kiosks on behalf of the communities.
“On good days the kiosk makes more than K10, 000,” she said, “but then recently, political party members came to demand for money to go to a football game - despite a recent warning to party supporters against such practices by a Member of Parliament for the area recently.”
BWB Public Relations Officer Flonie Musasa says the board runs about 30 kiosks out of the 350 water kiosks within the city of Blantyre.
He says that Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Blantyre City Assembly (BCA) built some of these kiosks.
Musasa says the kiosks owners are overcharging poor communities.She says local politics are affecting water kiosks operations because officials abuse the revenue collected. Musasa says the kiosks within the city have not paid about K16 million due to the board.
“Thousands of innocent poor people suffered from the disconnections,” said Musasa.
According to BWB Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the year ending 30 June 2005, the cash flow remained poor during the year mainly because of unwillingness to pay back by some customers and government institutions.
.
Moffatt Disi is the administrator for the BCA. He says the assembly is overseeing about 200 kiosks and it only gives advice to BWB kiosk operators on how to run them.
He says conflict between the DPP and UDF has aggravated the water problems in some townships of Blantyre.
BWB disconnected many kiosks because the operators owed the BWB more than K60 million in water bills. Acting Chief Executive Owen Kankhulungo says that most kiosks in Blantyre are failing to remit water bills. He also told Capital Radio that there are meter validation reports that show some corrupt practices whereby ex-employees and current employees are conniving to steal poor people's money through incorrect meter reading.
The problems affecting the operations of kiosks are not unique to Blantyre. Harry Jeweta is a committee member of Kauma Water Association in Lilongwe, he says his new committee is servicing a K2-million bill which the previous committee accumulated last year.
He says the committee is paying K150,000 every month on the accumulated bills and K250,000 for all the current bills that are under the association.
Jeweta says the committee has 15 committee members. The committee pays each member K1, 700 as monthly allowances.
Jeweta said the committee opened an account at the National Bank Lilongwe where the money is kept.
“We don't have a specific person who goes to the bank to bank our collections,” Jeweta says. “Anybody is free to go and bank the money.”
"Failure to remit the money to the board has resulted in the BWB disconnecting water from communities"
Jeweta says other committee members abuse the collected revenue and that has resulted in the suspension of committees.
He also says there is political interference and that chiefs are claiming ownership of the kiosks because the kiosks are within their premises.
Jeweta blamed someone in the previous committee, whose chairperson is Jackson Kaupa, for vandalising the kiosks.
But Kaupa denied that anyone in the committee did anything wrong. Actually, he said, he was instrumental in bringing water to Kauma township.
He says his committee lost control of kiosks when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came into power.
Kaupa says UDF committees that have been selling water more than 10 years are now complaining about the DPP, which has taken over the kiosks, because they say that they are now in government.
The group Water Aid has been working in partnership with Lilongwe Water Board to improve management of water services in unplanned low-income neighbourhoods.
Amos Chigwenembe, the media specialist at Water Aid, says the organization got involved in response to a request from the local Catholic Church who noted a drop in church attendance - particularly by female members of the community.
He said the reason given to his organisation for female poor attendance was lack of water to launder their Sunday clothes and to use for bathing.
Chigwenembe said that the initial role of Water Aid was to support the area by partnering with the church. But he said the issue is more complex. He said the management structures were inadequate, there was a lack of coherence within the community and that there was political interference. He said there was a need for a more strategic approach.
He says poor communities pay double and that in other cases communities paid 15 times more than those people living low-density, areas.
Chigwenembe said that Water Aid found that the utility's computerised billing system was inefficient and could not reconcile current consumption with arrears.
He says transparency in the billing process was difficult to discern because nobody made routine checks on the database to identify and correct anomalies.
In some cases, it took more than a year to read water meters, and communities were billed on estimated readings.
He said more than K 30.8 million are in arrears from the kiosks.
Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) Revenue Accountant Zakalia Ngoma says the board oversees 460 kiosks within Lilongwe.
He says LWB owns 88 kiosks while the local communities run the rest.
Ngoma said the Board charges K0.40 per cubic metre. Jeweta of Kauma Water Users Committee says kiosks in Kauma pay K0.70 for the same amount of water.
Spot checks reveal local community of Chinsapo 1 and 2 in Lilongwe pay K2 per pail of water while restaurant operators at the Lilongwe Flea market pay K10 for the same amount of water.
Operators of many of the kiosks, do not issue receipt. In some cases, the assembly issues tickets meant for toilets.
Ngoma says the board collects about K2.5million a month, but communities owe the board K12 million through unpaid water bills.
He says politicians are interfering in the efficient running of water kiosks in the city.
Public Relations Officer for Mzuzu Water Board Edwin Nyirongo said the Board charges 27.29 per cubic litres for the kiosks and revealed that kiosks sell water K2.00.
He says there is a great concern that Mzuzu residents think water is supposed to be free.
Critics say that unless the government forms a regulatory body to look after water management and water policy, abuse of poor will continue
He also says there is political interference and that chiefs are claiming ownership of the kiosks because the kiosks are within their premises.
Jeweta blamed someone in the previous committee, whose chairperson is Jackson Kaupa, for vandalising the kiosks.
But Kaupa denied that anyone in the committee did anything wrong. Actually, he said, he was instrumental in bringing water to Kauma township.
He says his committee lost control of kiosks when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came into power.
Kaupa says UDF committees that have been selling water more than 10 years are now complaining about the DPP, which has taken over the kiosks, because they say that they are now in government.
The group Water Aid has been working in partnership with Lilongwe Water Board to improve management of water services in unplanned low-income neighbourhoods.
Amos Chigwenembe, the media specialist at Water Aid, says the organization got involved in response to a request from the local Catholic Church who noted a drop in church attendance - particularly by female members of the community.
He said the reason given to his organisation for female poor attendance was lack of water to launder their Sunday clothes and to use for bathing.
Chigwenembe said that the initial role of Water Aid was to support the area by partnering with the church. But he said the issue is more complex. He said the management structures were inadequate, there was a lack of coherence within the community and that there was political interference. He said there was a need for a more strategic approach.
He says poor communities pay double and that in other cases communities paid 15 times more than those people living low-density, areas.
Chigwenembe said that Water Aid found that the utility's computerised billing system was inefficient and could not reconcile current consumption with arrears.
He says transparency in the billing process was difficult to discern because nobody made routine checks on the database to identify and correct anomalies.
In some cases, it took more than a year to read water meters, and communities were billed on estimated readings.
He said more than K 30.8 million are in arrears from the kiosks.
Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) Revenue Accountant Zakalia Ngoma says the board oversees 460 kiosks within Lilongwe.
He says LWB owns 88 kiosks while the local communities run the rest.
Ngoma said the Board charges K0.40 per cubic metre. Jeweta of Kauma Water Users Committee says kiosks in Kauma pay K0.70 for the same amount of water.
Spot checks reveal local community of Chinsapo 1 and 2 in Lilongwe pay K2 per pail of water while restaurant operators at the Lilongwe Flea market pay K10 for the same amount of water.
Operators of many of the kiosks, do not issue receipt. In some cases, the assembly issues tickets meant for toilets.
Ngoma says the board collects about K2.5million a month, but communities owe the board K12 million through unpaid water bills.
He says politicians are interfering in the efficient running of water kiosks in the city.
Public Relations Officer for Mzuzu Water Board Edwin Nyirongo said the Board charges 27.29 per cubic litres for the kiosks and revealed that kiosks sell water K2.00.
He says there is a great concern that Mzuzu residents think water is supposed to be free.
Critics say that unless the government forms a regulatory body to look after water management and water policy, abuse of poor will continue