Water woes in a growing city

At 4 am, Chrissy Mpata of Sawayeka on the nothrern margins of Mzuzu City leaves her husband fast asleep and disappears into the dark, carrying her bucket. Her third-born daughter follows half-asleep, down a hill dotted with emerging houses. At Kamunkhota, about a kilometre away, a borehole near Nkhorongo Community Day Secondary School serves four peri-urban settlements.

On arrival, Mpata, 49, joins the queue, placing her bucket in a crooked line as the pump rises and falls. “I often make two trips before sunrise to replenish water for drinking and cooking. For bathing and washing clothes, I go to a nearby stream,” she says.

Thousands of Mzuzu residents begin their day the same way as the city has fast outgrown its water supply system. For two decades, settlements have scaled surrounding hills and valleys, but water pipes are stuck in the city where tapsfrequently dry up. Many households in emerging peri-urban settlements like Sawayekha, Masasa, Lusangazi and Sonda rely on boreholes when government policy has shifted towards piped water.

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At Mzuzu University, Precious Namaona and 15 other students share a tap that runs dry two to three times a week—compelling them to buy water from neighbours with storage tanks. “A 10-litre bucket costs K200, so we’ve to use it wisely: One pail for bathing, another for cooking and washing dishes. Sometimes, we stop bathing.

This makes life unbearable,” he says. Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) spokesperson Edward Nyirenda says intermittent water supply in Luwinga and Lupaso, where most students live, is caused by population pressure on an aging system prone to pipe bursts. According to Nyirenda, the rusty pipes were designed to meet demand forecast around 2005. However, the population of Mzuzu has surged from about 200 000 to 285 000 ever since.

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