The residents of a poor shanty township in Malawi have banded together to stop corruption and make their drinking supply safer, cleaner and uninterrupted, by challenging local leaders on the money for water bills they pocket each year.
The Blantyre Water Board set up 38 water kiosks throughout the region of Nkolokoti-Kachere because the people who lived there were so poor. These kiosks are operated by religious, political and community leaders, who are supposed to use the villagers’ money to pay the Water Board. However, villagers say that this is not what’s happening, that leaders are pocketing the money for themselves.
This misappropriation of funds results in frequent disconnections of the water supply, which residents say can occasionally last for years at a time. The kiosks are often left in a state of disrepair, or disconnected altogether.
In response to this problem and using a successful scheme in Lilongwe as an example, the residents of the township teamed up with officials from Blantyre Water Board and the city council in February 2009 to form the Nkolokoti-Kachere Water Users Association.
This co-operative association ensures that bills are paid and that clean, safe water is regularly supplied. Local resident Fatima Misoya says:
“The [water users] association has made a big difference here,”
“We no longer get water from dirty streams.”
