The Cost of a Sustainable Water Supply at Network Kiosks in Peri-Urban Blantyre, Malawi

Abstract

Empirical insights were made into the challenges of supplying water to communities within low-income areas of peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi. A networked public water supply is provided to those without a domestic tap via communal water kiosks managed by community-based Water User Associations (WUAs) under a government mandate. There has been considerable debate surrounding the tariff charged for water supplied to such vulnerable communities. However, research has largely failed to consider the costs of WUAs operating the kiosks and the impact on the kiosk tariff. The determination of kiosk tariffs is critical to ensuring lifeline access to a sustainable water supply under Sustainable Development Goal 6. We provide evidence of this from our experience in the field in Blantyre. In particular, we argue that sustainable kiosk running costs cannot be born solely by the end user. A number of reforms are needed to help reduce the kiosk tariff. To reduce WUA costs and the kiosk tariffs, WUAs need more training in financial record keeping and cost management, WUAs should not inherit outstanding kiosk debt upon taking over their operations, and water boards should build kiosk costs over which they have fiscal responsibility into integrated block tariff calculations and subsidize them accordingly.

Attainment of water and sanitation goals: a review and agenda for research

“…The articles in this journal focused on focusing on sustainable rural water supply (Leborgne et al, 2021 ), groundwater salinity and rural water supply challenges (Rivett et al, 2020 ), and Human and health implications of Fluoride content in groundwater (Addison et al, 2020a , b ), one article on Sustainability are without any citations. The articles focused on the cost of sustainable water supply through network kiosks (Coulson et al, 2021 ) and the article published on Science of the Total Environment (17 citations). This article is related to salinity in aquifers and technologies beyond hand-pumps (Rivett et al, 2019 ).…”

“…These three concepts are taken as sub-themes under the initiatives in favor of SDG 6. There is positive news related to access to water, but the quality and affordability of water and sanitation remain a serious challenge and it defeats the objective of access to clean water (Coulson et al, 2021 ) (Mitlin and Walnycki, 2020 ). All these three factors are interlinked and should be existing for the successful attainment of SDG 6 (Diaz-Alcaide et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The other technical issues include the unaffordability of water and poor coordination of responsibilities (Jama and Mourad, 2019 ); poor latrine constructions and seasonal flooding (Jewitt et al, 2018 ); political will, poor economic background, poor environmental and manpower development, attitude and lack of will of administrative and legislative systems; and poor technological tools are challenges proper water governance (Mycoo, 2018 ); technical, scale and operational efficiencies of water utilities are a serious challenge for goals of clean water (Ngobeni and Breitenbach, 2021 ); installation failures, damages, poor maintenance, non-availability of spare parts and affordability issues and financial constrains (Truslove et al, 2020 ; Coulson, et al, 2021 ); issues associated with poor infrastructure (Udmale et al, 2016 ); affordability, markets, and behavior are the strongest barriers for attainment of SDG 6 (Wight et al, 2021 ) The poor human development, capacity challenges for monitoring sanitation and lack of sufficient data for monitoring and wrong conclusions are creating challenges for SDG 6 (Rahaman et al, 2021 ; Komakech et al, 2019 ; Kirschke et al, 2020 ); behavioral issues, barriers, and habits are posing severe threat to attainment of SDG 6 goals (Mathew et al, 2020 ).…”

Analysis of the organization, management and operation of Blantyre Water Board in Malawi: Future reforms and perspectives

“…Overall, the coverage in the middle‐class community was 96%, while coverage in the LIA was 49%, indicating a significant disparity (Mughogho & Kosamu, 2012). Simultaneously, the BWB charged customers the same tariff per cubic meter, resulting in a disproportionate impact on low‐income households (Coulson et al., 2021). Water bills are typically delivered to customers' homes 15 days before the payment deadline; the BWB has partnered with several banks and encouraged residents to pay via mobile phone.…”

“…Customer‐orientation necessitates that the employees who are in direct contact with consumers should be able to make decisions fast in order to address an issue or complaint as soon as possible; this necessitates a decentralized decision‐making strategy throughout the company. The BWB, for example, has separated the city into four water supply zones, each of which has its own head office, which has a customer centre that receives consumer complaints regarding service quality (Coulson et al., 2021). The autonomy of the utility and the decentralization of authority within the service provider can help to alleviate the weight of hierarchical regulations while also encourages greater discretion at lower levels of the government's organizational hierarchy.…”