After a week long of dry taps in the Capital City, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) says it has resumed normal supply of water to its customers following the completion of interconnection works which it conducted in the areas where roads are being upgraded in Lilongwe city.
A press statement from LWB issued on Saturday indicates that the interconnection works which it carried out were made to complement the upgrading works of the roads.
“In support of the Capacity Improvement Road works on the Kenyatta Drive – Sharrar Street and Mzimba Street to six lane and four lanes roads respectively, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) embarked on the pipe relocation works project.
“The pipe relocation works were necessary considering that the pipes on the sections of the roads capacity improvement project are of large transmission capacity, up to 800 mm diameter (the largest size in the water supply network) and transmit water to about 60 percent of the Board’s water supply area in particular the Central and Northern parts of Lilongwe city,” reads part of the statement.
It adds that, the pipe relocation works involved the procurement and installation of new pipelines of up to a total of nine kilometre running mainly on opposite sides of the existing pipelines and mainly pegged outside the service areas of the road works.
According to the statement, the actual installation of the new pipelines was substantially completed by June 2023 with full access to the road to the road contractors provided by August 2023.
It also states, having completed the pipe installation works, the major project component that remained was the actual interconnection of the newly installed pipelines to the existing water supply system which has now been fully completed.
The statement further highlighted that each phase of interconnection triggered 48 hours waters supply outages, however upon the completion of the interconnection works LWB resumed its normal supply of water to its customers which is expected to improve in due course.
“The remedial works were subsequently completed by midnight of 5 January 2024 and pumping to the Board’s water reservoirs resumed immediately.
“Most parts that had been affected by the outage, these being the central and northern parts of the Board’s water supply area, had a resumption of water supply services by the morning of 6 January 2024, supply to all affected areas would fully normalise in the day as water levels build up in the distribution system,” the statement highlights.
Through the press statement, LWB apologised to its customers for the delayed resumption of water supply services and it extended the vote of thanks to the customers for their patience and understanding during the period of interconnection works.