Blantyre City Council courts economic experts
By Green Muheya, Nyasa Times
Amid an outcry of lack of financial prudence, nepotism, and inefficiency by Blantyre City Council (BCC), management has swallowed its pride and invited the city’s citizenry to scrutinize its budget skeletons before it formulates the council’s 2012/13 financial year budget.
The council invited a number of city residents on Wednesday morning to hear their views for possible inclusion in their final budget.
BCC Director of Administrative Services Alfred Chanza said the pre-budget session was important as it will give a chance to the city residents who he described as “city owners” to bring steak in the Council’s 2012/13 budget.
“We have called upon the stakeholders to ensure that the budgeting is participatory and the city is taken back to the people,” said Chanza who has been at the centre of controversies facing the council.
Covering an area of 220 square kilometers, Blantyre City Council has a population of over 700,000, and is managed in accordance with the Local Government Act of 1998.
With a vision of being a city of choice with conducive environment where people shall take ownership, live and do business, the council has seven departments which include Administration (main dept), Engineering, Health and Social, Finance, Town Planning Estates, Leisure, Culture and Environment and the newly introduced Commerce & Industry.
Chanza was optimistic that the involvement of the city gurus in their budgeting process will yield big results that will augur well with their mission statement.
He said: “Our mission statement is to provide environmentally friendly, high quality, efficient and effective demand driven municipal services in partnership with the individual and corporate residents to attain better quality, lives for all residents in the city’ and it is against this background that we would want to involve the people in this session’s mission statement.”
The meeting took place at the Civic Centre’s main committee room and representatives included the business community, the banking and financial sector, academicians, private and public sector, construction industry, members of the press, informal sector, civil society groups and faith groups.
Over 100 delegates which included legislators for Blantyre City South East, Blantyre City South and Blantyre City West, Jeffrey Mtelemuka, Moses Kunkuyu and and Thom Gowelo respectively attended the meeting which was the first of its kind to be conducted by the council.
The Ministry of Finance has over the last few years been also conducting pre-budget consultations with members of the public prior to the formulation of the national budget.
Labels: BLANTYRE CITY, LOCAL GOVERNMENT
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Private firm awarded water, sanitation project for two Malawian cities
By Nyasa Times
Published: August 27, 2009
The Malawi government, in conjunction with the European Union (EU), has awarded Netherlands-based firm Vitens-Evides International a five-year contract for the implementation of a periurban water and sanitation project in Lilongwe and Blantyre.
The EU has provided a total of €31-million in the form of a loan and a grant for the project, aimed at rehabilitating the ageing water supply infrastructure in the two cities.
Vitens-Evides will, besides other things, implement a technical operation efficiency improvement programme, a financial and commercial efficiency improvement programme, an investment programme, and a programme to ensure water supply to low-income areas in the two cities in close cooperation with nongovernmental organisations.
The periurban water and sanitation project is part of the second phase of the multimillion-dollar national water development programme, which is financed by, besides the EU, the World Bank, the government of the Netherlands, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the African Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Association.
Other financiers are the United Nations Development Programme, Water Aid, the UK’s Department for International Development, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development
The programme has so far attracted about $300-million in funding..–Creamer Media’s Engineering News
Labels: BLANTYRE CITY, LILONGWE, WATER
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Water crisis hit hard in Blantyre City
By Nyasa Times
Published: June 15, 2009
Water supply has run out in most parts of Malawi’s commercial city, Blantyre and this has put lives of hundreds of thousands of people’s lives in danger and risk of cholera besides other water borne diseases.
The situation according to our investigations has reached alarming levels in the city’s five largest and populous Ndirande, Mbayani, Bangwe/BCA, Chilomoni and Zingwangwa townships as people have entered their fifth day without any hope of water.
A snap shot conducted by Nyasa Times throughout the weekend shows that young girls and women have been forced to take the risk of travelling long distances during the night to scavenge water from whatever source.
In Ndirande, a township with an estimated population of 300 thousand residents, the only source of hope is the Muluzi borehole that was drilled seven years ago at the magnificent Ndirande Hill Secondary while those staying in Goliyo area and the surrounding places are banking hopes on unhygienic Nasolo stream.
Residents in other townships are also all over looking for whatever could be seen as running water. In worst case scenario in some area around Soche East exact cartographic identity withheld for ethical reasons, people are drilling water from broken under sewer pipe.
An official at the Blantyre Water Board refused to give an official comment saying that “if you give reasons you are suspected to be an opposition person who does not wish the present government well. Saying the truth is very costly because you will find that Mr. George Mtawali or Mr. Ngalande of Newlands will cut my throat or i’ll lose my job.”
The consumer activist John Kapito of Cama recently told Capital FM radio that the situation is bad and described Malawi “worse than Zimbabwe.”
Nyasa Times reporter had time to talk a few hospitals finding out what the five days without water meant to their operations at each individual hospital; the medical doctors were unanimous in saying that it has cost them lives because most operations could not take place without water.
The water crisis has also affected industrial production because manufacturing becomes difficult and unhygienic without water.
Turning to Blantyre water board management seems completely overwhelmed by the problem because they are now in total denial to the embarrassment of President Bingu Mutharika who now has all necessary instruments including financial support from foreign banks.
“Now that the president has majority in parliament, we hope he will crack the whip on all non-performing boards and managers. Malawi has very experienced persons in water management and some are anchoring huge water industries abroad, President Mutharika should no longer retain people because they are blue eyed or blue supporters because the problem of water is for everyone,” said Zebron Machekacheka a young executive working for one of the banks in the city.
“The only good thing that BWB has done for the past five years has been providing vehicles to ruling DPP for the youths by the deputy regional governor of the south Macdonald Solomon and other functionaries; otherwise management at BWB stopped performing long time ago,” lamented Alfred Banda a member of the DPP youth wing whose business has also suffered because of shortage of water.
Water like electricity is now an essential that has become very scarce to access in city of Blantyre; but if you assess the visibility of the two institutions in terms of outright extravaganza judged by the 4×4 type of vehicles; you cannot travel two kilometres without being overtaken by a vehicle from either of the two parastatals.
Labels: BLANTYRE CITY, WATER
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