Bottlenecks in Achieving Universal Access to Clean Water to Every Household in Malawi
By Deogracias Benjamin Kalima, Lilongwe
Angela Penikeni from Area 23, a high density township in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, says if there is a problem duty bearers must immediately work on, it is the water supply in her area.
A house wife and a mother of one, Penikeni says accessing portable clean water in her area for most low income households, who do not have their own piped water connection, is a struggle. She and women from over 50 households that depend on a communal borehole spend a lot time to fill up their water buckets because the borehole pumps out water very slowly, taking about 20 minutes to fill up a 30 litre bucket.
“The borehole we use to draw safe water here in Zion Mosque area seldom gushes out water. Instead, it just trickles in. This takes a lot time for a 30 litre bucket to fill up which means despite the water point being closer to our homes, we sometimes spend an hour or two on the queue since we are many who access the borehole,” she says.
Penikeni explains that the borehole is a lifeline to many households in the fast growing suburb of Area 44, whose majority of inhabitants are low income earners working as domestic servants or shop assistants, while others are involved in small scale business ventures with an average daily income of US$3. She says for some who can afford it, they access piped water in Lilongwe Water Board water kiosks on a pay as you go basis, but not many can afford this as it is still beyond reach for them.

“There are several water kiosks provided by the water utility body, Lilongwe Water Board, which supply water at a pay as you go basis. Honestly, the tariffs are not that exorbitant but it is because most of us here are low income earners and we still find the kiosk water expensive for our pockets hence finding the borehole a convenient alternative,” laments the 21-year-old, who moved to Lilongwe with her husband in early 2024 from the Lakeshore district of Mangochi.
Penikeni’s husband Faheem Mainala corroborates her story. He says it is not all the time he has money in his pocket to pay for the piped water, hence his wife often relies on the borehole, but it is dysfunctional, resulting in the loss of time and delays in getting him ready for his work as an imam and instructor at an Islamic Centre in the township.
“Due to the borehole’s malfunctioning, my wife, despite waking so early, spends quite a time at the water point, which in the end affect my preparations for the day’s work as an imam. I wish there was a way out of this predicament,” he says.

This is a common problem in Malawi, where a majority of the Malawian population don’t have access to piped water. Their only way to access safe drinking water are the boreholes which are sunk across the country. Malawi achieved an impressive 89 percent clean water coverage rate in 2015. Experts anticipated the country to achieve the 100 percent mark by now in order to do away with waterborne diseases, which claim about 1000 people every year in Malawi
However, with recent revelations that a number of boreholes in Malawi failed a pumping test, it is worrying.
Findings from a recent study by water management, Base Flow, revealed that 26 percent of boreholes in 21 of the country’s 28 administrative districts are non-functional. Another study by the same firm in 2023 revealed that 41 percent of the country’s 60,000 boreholes are either partially functional or have hardly worked since they were drilled.
This is according to Muthi Nhlema, BaseFlow’s team leader who said according to the study, some of the contributing factors to this anomaly is the growing tendency by players in the WASH sector who keep on prioritising drilling new boreholes instead of fixing broken ones, thereby pushing people into accessing water from unsafe sources.
“There is a long standing challenge whereby players in the WASH sector, both public and private, are obsessed with drilling new boreholes while neglecting the existing faulty ones. This means while we are making strides in making safe water accessible to everyone, we leaving others behind,” he says.
Despite the boreholes being the lifeline to many people both in rural and high density urban areas, recent data from the Department of Water in the Ministry of Water and Sanitation indicate that the average functionality rate of the 60,000 boreholes in the country’s 28 districts, stands at 58.5 percent. This means that at least 20,000 boreholes are not functioning, driving people to alternative, unsafe water sources.
Nhlema suggests an introduction of a by-law that any allocation of the borehole fund must be based on data, and not by the decision of one person or a group in direct reference to politicians, especially members of parliament and councillors, who at times have been faulted for allocating sinking of boreholes to particular areas, which are not suitable, in order to score a political point.
“To do away with these problems, there is a need to put a by-law that any borehole drilling must be based on data which is readily available at Malawi Water Asset Management Information Systems (Mwamis),” he says.

A six-year government plan, the Malawi Rural Water Investment Plan, estimated that, if government rehabilitated 5,000 faulty boreholes, at least a million people will have access to clean and safe water as the country works on achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number six, which mandates countries to ensure universal, equitable and affordable access to safe water by 2030.
According to Dr Rebekah Hinton of University of Strathclyde, as Malawi is undergoing rapid demographic change, with an incredibly high rate of population growth and urbanisation, poor water and sanitation are estimated to account for over 50 percent of Malawi’s disease burden. Over 60 percent of Malawi’s population relies on drinking water which is contaminated with bacteria. This results in diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera outbreaks.
Malawi experienced a widespread cholera outbreak from March 2022 to February 2023 with recorded 36,943 cases which resulted in 1210 deaths. With a consistently high case fatality rate of above 3 percent, the cholera outbreak was declared a public health emergency in December 2022. However, it was eventually contained.
Recently, Malawi launched an initiative to accelerate the country’s readiness to tap funding for mitigating climate change especially in the water sector. The African Union (AU), with support from the Global Climate Fund (GCF), allocated $616 million to 15 member states hit hard by chronic climate shocks that disrupt access to water. It is hoped that part of the funds will be used to rehabilitate broken boreholes so as to galvanize the gains made in the water sector.