Malawi Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) has indicated that it will construct a new dam to address increasing demand for water in the Mzuzu city. The board has indicated that it requires US$ 75m for the construction of the new dam.

According to NRWB chief executive officer (CEO) Titus Mtegha who spoke during commissioning of the new Ekwendeni Water Treatment Plant that will ease reliance of Ekwendeni on the Mzuzu water system, the board is talking to government and corporate partners to fund construction of the new dam at Chikangawa Forest.

He said that the current one dam in the area was not responsive to the growing population. Feasibility studies on the new dam, according to Mtegha, have already been done and that the target was to identify a suitable location for this dam to provide Mzuzu people with enough water for 20 or 30 coming years.

“Once funding has been sourced, then we should be able to construct the dam and Mzuzu will be taken out of the water situation we are facing or likely to face,” he said.

The revived Ekwendeni water plant will see pressure exerted on Lunyangwa Dam eased according to the officer. It will see that Ekwendeni has its own water system. It means that Mzuzu customers will have access to 1 000 cubic metres of water (one million litres) that was being supplied daily from Mzuzu to Ekwendeni.