President Lazarus Chakwera has said Malawi cannot continue borrowing for consumption, blaming the trend for turning Malawi into the slave of lenders.
Chakwera said this yesterday in Mangochi during the commissioning of the Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) Nkhudzi Bay Water Project.
Speaking at the event, Chakwera said it is unfortunate that the country continues to borrow money with no tangible investments that will ensure that the country has enough resources to repay the debt and use some of it for social services.
The President said this is the reason he has appointed Simplex Chithyola Banda as the new Finance Minister to reconfigure expenditure of limited resources and focus on revenue generation.
“In practice, some public programme [implementers] that are accustomed to spending public money year after year without any productive end in sight will need to find other sources of funding to continue, because we need to accept the painful fact that we only have enough resources to spend on the things that will boost productivity and increase our people’s capacity for revenue generation,” Chakwera said.
- Advertisement -
On the water project, Chakwera commended SRWB for efficient use of resources that were provided for the project.
He further urged the board to maintain the momentum and apply its formula for success to water projects that are in the pipeline.
“I have in mind the stand-alone project at Cape Maclear; the planned Domasi Multi-Purpose Dam; the planned Thuchira Water Supply Project for improving water provision services to the people of Mulanje, Phalombe and Thyolo; as well as other projects for supplying water to Balaka, Zalewa, Mwanza, Neno and Makanjira.
“I want you to push for speedy progress on these projects even more than you have done here at Nkhudzi Bay, because water is such a top priority that affects the quality of life for everyone,” Chakwera said SRWB Chairperson Brown Mpinganjira said the water project means a lot to the people of Mangochi and the board.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
“We have already connected more than 800 households and tourism players and we are going to connect more, which means that our revenue will also grow while we are serving people in line with government objectives,” he said.
One of the contractors, Plem Construction, said even though the project faced challenges, they have completed it within a reasonable time.
The company’s director Gangadharan Radhakrishnan Nair assured Malawians that no environment or heritage site has been destroyed in the process of implementing the project.
“Before any project is done, there is a feasibility study, which involves all concerned sectors, and that happened. Therefore, their fears were unfounded and, true to that, nothing has been destroyed in this project,” Nair said.
The SRWB water project, which has an intake at Lake Malawi and a tank at Nkhudzi Mountain and is ferrying water through gravity, is expected to benefit over 92,000 households.
