The Government of Malawi (GoM) through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) has received a grant of USD 32.2 million (UA 23 million) from the African Development Fund (ADF) for the financing of the Rumphi Water and Sanitation Services Improvement Project (RWSSIP). The Government of Malawi will contribute USD 3.67 million (UA 2.62 million) towards the cost of the project. The Project will be implemented by Northern Region Water Board (NRWB).

The Project development objective is to increase access to sustainable and climate resilient potable water supply and safely manage sanitation services for Rumphi Town and surrounding areas.

PROJECT SCOPE

The project has the following components:

1. Water Supply Infrastructure

• Construction of an intake and upgrading of 1.6 kilometre raw water transmission pipeline.
• Upgrading of the water treatment plant capacity from the current 1.5 million litres/day to 19.415 million litres per day.
• Upgrading of 10.3 kilometre transmission pipelines including construction of pumping stations and installation of pump sets.
• Construction of storage tanks with a capacity of 7,350 m3
• Upgrading and expansion of 323 kilometre distribution network including last mile connectivity targeting 2,600 new customers (88,850 people) by December 2027
• Planting 700,00 trees to promote catchment management

2. Sanitation Infrastructure and Hygiene Promotion

• Installation of 8 Kilometre sewerage network to serve public institutions and surrounding households at Rumphi town.
• Construction of wastewater treatment facility with a capacity of 143 m3/day
• Construction of a landfill with a capacity of 52,798 m3
• Sanitation marketing and hygiene promotion
• Construction of 10 VIP sanitation facilities in schools and market centres.
• Construction of a commuter toilet drop facility at Mzokoto
• Development and operationalisation of a solid waste management strategy

PROJECT BENEFICIARIES

The project will increase access to improved water supply and sanitation services for 158,085 people by 2045. It is expected that 51% of the beneficiaries will be female.

IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD

The project’s implementation period is 4 years from 20th December 2023 to 19th December 2027.

The Government of Malawi through the Northern Region Water Board is implementing the US$26.7 million Karonga Town Water Supply Project to contribute to the socio-economic growth of Malawi through the provision of sustainable potable water supply in Karonga and surrounding areas.

The project involves rehabilitating, upgrading and expanding the existing Karonga Water Supply System so that it provides reliable and sustainable potable water.

Specifically, the project will:

• Upgrade the water treatment plant from 12,400m3/day to 31,000m3/day
• Upgrade transmission pipelines (a total of 28.3km long pipes of diameters ranging from DN 200 to DN 600)
• Upgrade distribution network by installing 285km long pipelines with diameters ranging from 63mm to 500mm.
• Increase storage tanks capacity by 10,000m3

The extent of the new water supply system, whose design year is 2035 will extend up to Pusi to the north (33km), Mlare/Ngala to the south (24km) and Mpata (6km) to the west of Karonga Boma.

The project is being funded by Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) with the sum of US$15 million, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Afrca (BADEA) with the sum of US$10 million and the Republic of Malawi with the sum of US$1.7 million and will be implemented over a period of 28 months.

The project will increase access to potable water and improve health and sanitation to over 184 000 people.