The Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources has expressed concern about the reluctance of some commercial entities in Mangochi to connect their property to the K16 billion Nkhuzi Bay Water Treatment Plant.
Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) commissioned the plant in November last year.
Chairperson for Natural Resources Committee of Parliament Welani Chilenga said in an interview after meeting SRWB management and representatives of hotel owners in Mangochi on Thursday that Parliament will ask the relevant authorities to take action on the entities if this trend will not be reversed.
“This is a serious problem because as Parliament, we approved this loan on the basis that government will pay from the revenue generated from the same project. And if people are not connecting to the system it means this project can be a white elephant,” Chilenga said.
He further called on all hotel and resort owners in the district to appreciate that the SRWB water is safer for their customers than the water which they are individually pumping from other sources.
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“They have no excuse whatsoever because the water is available now. SRWB is the only mandated supplier of water in Mangochi and we will ask the National Water Resource Authority to seal the plants these entities are using,” he said.
During an earlier meeting with members of the Tourism Association Mangochi chapter, most hotel owners complained that they invested a lot of resources to construct water plants for their units before the coming in of the SRWB infrastructure.
To this end, the hotel owners feel that it is a loss for them to abandon such investments now without prior arrangements.
“But also some of the members have huge swimming pools that need a lot of water to fill. Some use a lot of water to keep their gardens green so it can be expensive to use SRWB water for all these works, hence the need for the government to consider us,” said Patricia Lunguzi, secretary of the association in Mangochi.
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SRWB Board Chairperson Brown Mpinganjira said the reluctance of the commercial customers to connect to the water grid is costing the state supplier a lot of money.
Mpinganira said the Nkhuzi Bay plant has a capacity to pump about 400 million liters of water, but only 18 million is being utilised.
“But we hope that with these engagements, the customers will understand us and connect to the grid because we have a loan to service and they need quality water for their customers. We have the water and they have no excuse,” he said.
