For the past months, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) has, in collaboration with Lilongwe City Council, been conducting free sewer connections in some selected areas in the city under the World Bank-funded Lilongwe Water Sanitation Project. The project, which aims at improving sanitation in the city, will soon see households in these selected areas get connected to the central sewer system.
However, LWB recently came under fire from its customers after introducing K8,500 fee as sewer service charge and even billing those who were not yet connected. Customers further faulted the board for allegedly not raising awareness about the sewer line fee before introducing it.
The water utility company has since suspended implementation of the fees in order to rectify the billing system and, probably, conduct further consultations.
In a related incident, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority recently approved an upward electricity tariff adjustment from K123.26 to K173.70/ kWh, representing about 40.9 percent in line with the Automatic Tariff Formula (ATAF). The decision was later rescinded probably in reaction to public outcry over the hike. This time round, it was the government suspending the upward revision of electricity tariffs approved by its agent until next year. However, government said this only applies to domestic customers but the status quo remains for industrial users. According to government, this was aimed at cushioning Malawians from the impact of economic problems.
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By the way, this is not the first time we have witnessed government or its agents issuing a communication on an issue to the public only to make a U-turn after public outcry.
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I wouldn’t blame LWB or the government for the ‘change of heart’ though’. For government, this is good for the optics!
But in the context of Public Relations (PR) and Communications, the two scenarios reveal some elements of reactive communication. That’s typical of what happens when communication is handled on ad-hoc basis— when there is no defined communication plan to provide proper direction in the way public communications are handled.
For instance, and for argument’s sake, in the case of LWB, what if the water utility company were to conduct a survey and find that, generally, customers are happy about the introduction of the sewer system but did not have adequate information about how the system was going to roll out and its implementation modalities? In the action taken by the board, what should be expected of customers? What would happen to those who already had septic tanks and so on? LWB is known for its good reputation on customer care. I believe it could have done better on this matter.
Furthermore, it has to be appreciated that managing stakeholders in this digital era is usually tricky since there are so many sources of information, some of which may damage an organisation’s reputation if not well managed. This is where a proactive strategic communications plan become handy to ensure sustained and consistent information flow, proper coordination, targeting and timely execution. However, developing a communications plan requires collaborative efforts. But this must start with a leader working with his/her communication team. The leader should spell out his/her message in line with his/her vision.
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It is also advisable that decisions, at whatever level, should always be scrutinised through PR and reputational lens. In such instances, a PR audit could help in assessing how actions and decisions would be perceived by those within and outside the organisation.
Going this far, allow me to digress a bit. A story is told about a baby mosquito who was ready for its maiden flight. With excitement, it fluttered its wings, did somersaults and the like in order to impress its mother that it was ready to fly. However, the mother mosquito, based on her experience, advised baby mosquito to postpone the flight until the following day due to the bad weather. But the adamant baby mosquito was not prepared to take heed of the advice.
The concerned mother, however, advised the baby mosquito to stay away from humans. She further advised the baby that if humans came close, it should always fly away as quickly as it could. As the baby went about on its adventurous flight, it saw some humans. Curiosity brought it closer to the humans. The baby landed on the hairless leg of a human and had a good drink of blood.
It excitedly repeated this feat. It flew from one face of human being to another. In the process, it expertly avoided clapping hands. When the baby mosquito flew home, it narrated its adventures with humans to the mother. It told its mother that whenever it flew close to the humans, they clapped hands and cheerfully waved at it with their handkerchiefs. Not amused, the mother mosquito told her child: “They weren’t clapping hands for you, fool! They were trying to kill you with their bare hands. Neither were they waving you on; they were trying to swat you away!”
The moral behind the story is that not all those who support, advise or praise us do so with good intentions. We may end up learning in a hard way. Always seek and heed sound PR counsel!
