Committee for water boards regulation

The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources has recommended that the government, through the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, should establish a Water Regulatory Authority to regulate water boards operations.

The committee says there is a need for sanity in the sector.

Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources Chairperson Werani Chilenga said the absence of a regulatory authority is affecting operations and effectiveness of water boards.

Chilenga said, among other things, water boards have been proposing a hike in water tariffs to meet their production costs, but they face an uphill task to convince capital hill.

“We would like to urge government to come up with a Water Regulatory Authority because these water boards are suffering a lot. If they want to increase their tariffs, it’s not easy for them,” Chilenga said.

He further said their committee will engage other members of Parliament to support the proposal. Minister of Water and Sanitation Abida Mia agreed with the committee, that all water boards are supposed to be regulated, in terms of service delivery, but said, currently, it is her ministry doing the work.

“In other countries, including our neighbours, there is a water supply regulatory body which checks the quality of service being offered,” Mia said.

Recently, NRWB revealed that it might incur about K4 billion losses if the government will not allow them to raise water tariffs by 55 percent this year.

The board said at the close of 2022, it had made about K1.9 billion losses.