The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $47,5-million financial package for the implementation of the second phase of Malawi's multimillion-dollar national water development programme.
The continenal lender says that the package includes a $24,658-million loan and a $17,387-million grant from its African Development Fund and another grant of €3,520-million from its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Trust Fund.
"The AfDB has made available the funds to complement the Malawi government's efforts to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction," says the bank.
It says the funds will finance three components of the national water development programme, which include rural water supply and sanitation, water resource management, capacity building and programme management.
"For the rural areas, this translates into improved water supply and sanitation for 4,45-million people . . . the bank financing will serve 1,21-million of these people."
The national water development programme is aimed at improving water supply services in all areas of Malawi, but the AfDB will focus on four districts, namely Malanje, Zomba and Machinga in the southern region of the Southern African country, and Lilongwe, in the central region.
The other component of the programme, the urban water supply project, involves the rehabilitation and extension of water supply systems in the major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe and in other urban centres.
In Blantyre, funds are being pumped into projects to increase the pumping and treatment capacity and to expand off-peak water storage and distribution.
In Lilongwe, the programme is focused on the construction of a substitute pipeline, the procurement of customer meters and network expansion.
The World Bank is the lead financier for the second phase of the national water development programme, with the other financiers being the European Union and the government of the Netherlands.
The programme has a duration of five year project that is meant to ensure that a total of 500,000 people have new or improved water supply services, 4,040 connections are rehabilitated, 1,700 new community water points are established, 3,700 new water connections are installed, and about 2, 25-million people have improved sanitation.
Through the programme, Malawi aims at having over 80% coverage for improved water supply and sanitation by 2015.
Malawi has already implemented the first phase of the national water development programme at a cost of $850-million, which was sourced from the World Bank and other financiers.
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Malawi plans to register seven million voters for 2009 poll: officials
BLANTYRE (AFP) — Malawi is hoping to enrol seven million people on to its new voters roll when registration for next year's general election opens this month, electoral officials said Thursday.
"We are targeting seven million voters. We will register afresh people for the elections," Fegus Lipenga, spokesperson for the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), told AFP.
The MEC, which will spend 50 million dollars (32 million euro) on the May 19 poll, will kick off a three-and-half-months phased registration exercise on August 18 in selected districts of the poor southern African nation.
Registration will close on November 29 after covering the country's 28 districts.
Lipenga said the registration "will be staggered because we are using very expensive equipment that we purchased. It was not possible to procure equipment for each and every centre."
He said a new voters electoral roll was being launched in a bid to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2004 elections, in which the number of registered voters dropped by one million after the high court ordered an inspection of the lists.
That election was the third multiparty poll since the end of dictatorial rule 15 years ago.
The commission has launched a media blitz to attract the largely illiterate population of 13 million Malawians to register.
"We are urging all stakeholders to mobilise people to go in large numbers to register so that they are allowed to vote in 2009," Lipenga said.
Former colonial power Britain has pledged eight million dollars to help fund the elections. Other donors and the United Nations Development Fund will also bankroll the vote.
Incumbent President Bingu wa Mutharika faces a strong challenge from his predecessor Bakili Muluzi.
Muluzi has been chosen as the Malawi's opposition's candidate in the presidential poll although he was constitutionally prohibited from running again after he served two terms from 1994.
He wrested power from dictator Kamuzu Banda in the country's first democratic poll in 1994.
"We are targeting seven million voters. We will register afresh people for the elections," Fegus Lipenga, spokesperson for the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), told AFP.
The MEC, which will spend 50 million dollars (32 million euro) on the May 19 poll, will kick off a three-and-half-months phased registration exercise on August 18 in selected districts of the poor southern African nation.
Registration will close on November 29 after covering the country's 28 districts.
Lipenga said the registration "will be staggered because we are using very expensive equipment that we purchased. It was not possible to procure equipment for each and every centre."
He said a new voters electoral roll was being launched in a bid to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2004 elections, in which the number of registered voters dropped by one million after the high court ordered an inspection of the lists.
That election was the third multiparty poll since the end of dictatorial rule 15 years ago.
The commission has launched a media blitz to attract the largely illiterate population of 13 million Malawians to register.
"We are urging all stakeholders to mobilise people to go in large numbers to register so that they are allowed to vote in 2009," Lipenga said.
Former colonial power Britain has pledged eight million dollars to help fund the elections. Other donors and the United Nations Development Fund will also bankroll the vote.
Incumbent President Bingu wa Mutharika faces a strong challenge from his predecessor Bakili Muluzi.
Muluzi has been chosen as the Malawi's opposition's candidate in the presidential poll although he was constitutionally prohibited from running again after he served two terms from 1994.
He wrested power from dictator Kamuzu Banda in the country's first democratic poll in 1994.
Malawi to pay local maize farmers more
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Malawi will pay higher prices to local farmers to prevent foreign traders from acquiring the country's maize and hoarding the staple crop, an official at the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) said.
The government will buy maize from local farmers at 65 kwacha per kilogramme (46 U.S. cents) from the previous 17 kwacha/kg.
NFRA General Manage Edward Sawerengera said the government decided to set competitive prices and has so far managed to buy 85,000 tonnes to be sold during December and January.
"We are now buying at 65 kwacha per kilogramme to fend off competition from outside our borders and try to keep enough food for our people during the months of December and January when people need food," Sawerengera said.
Sawerengera said the total target is to buy 110,000 tonnes to keep in the country's strategic grain reserves.
Maize prices on the open market have risen sharply since January this year from about 17 kwacha per kilogramme to 45 kwacha/kg last month.
Three consecutive good harvests backed by a successful fertiliser subsidy programme has seen Malawi produce a surplus of 500,000 tonnes this year. Last year, the country produced a 1.3 million tonnes surplus, the highest in 10 years.
The government will buy maize from local farmers at 65 kwacha per kilogramme (46 U.S. cents) from the previous 17 kwacha/kg.
NFRA General Manage Edward Sawerengera said the government decided to set competitive prices and has so far managed to buy 85,000 tonnes to be sold during December and January.
"We are now buying at 65 kwacha per kilogramme to fend off competition from outside our borders and try to keep enough food for our people during the months of December and January when people need food," Sawerengera said.
Sawerengera said the total target is to buy 110,000 tonnes to keep in the country's strategic grain reserves.
Maize prices on the open market have risen sharply since January this year from about 17 kwacha per kilogramme to 45 kwacha/kg last month.
Three consecutive good harvests backed by a successful fertiliser subsidy programme has seen Malawi produce a surplus of 500,000 tonnes this year. Last year, the country produced a 1.3 million tonnes surplus, the highest in 10 years.
THE CLIMATE DIVIDE: MALAWI; Prone to Drought, And All but Unable To Predict the Weather
Here are four views of the climate divide.
Twice a day, 25-year-old Harold Nkhoma checks a series of gauges at the government's weather station here in Malawi's second-biggest city.
He skips the barometer because its light doesn't work and he can't read the figures. He has waited six months for new batteries.
He ignores the evaporation pan designed to show how quickly water is absorbed into the soil. Peeled-off paint and missing wire mesh have left it useless. And he bypasses the glass sphere that measures the duration of sunshine by burning marks on paper strips. It has been out of paper for four years.
His supervisor, Werani Chilenga, is disgusted. Broken equipment, outmoded technology, slipshod data and a sparse scattering of weather stations are all that his national agency can manage on a $160,000 budget.
''We cannot even know the duration of sunshine in our country for four years, so how can we measure climate change?'' said Mr. Chilenga, a meteorological engineer. ''Oh, oh, it is pathetic!''
The lack of meteorological data is just one challenge as Malawi struggles to cope with global warming. Add to that a lack of irrigation; overdependence on a single crop, maize; shrinking fish stocks; vanishing forests; and land degradation.
Last March, Malawi, which has a population of 14 million people and is one of the world's poorest countries, identified $23 million worth of urgent measures it should take in the next three years. It delivered them to the United Nations program that helps poor nations deal with climate change.
A year later, the government is still negotiating with donors. ''It is sad that up until now we have not gotten the monies that have been talked about,'' said Henry Chimunthu Banda, the minister of environmental affairs. That is not to say Malawi is standing still. The government is moving toward bigger grain reserves, changes in agricultural practices and construction of a new dam. Nine out of 10 Malawians are subsistence farmers.
Austin Kampen, 39, is an early adapter. A nonprofit group last year gave him hoses and a huge bucket -- a rudimentary but effective crop sprinkler system.
He plants a variety of maize more likely to survive shorter growing seasons and backs it up with cotton, vegetables, potatoes and cassava.
He still lost his entire harvest in January when the river overflowed after a week of nonstop rain, submerging his seven-acre field and leaving 75 of his neighbors homeless. Still, he said, he will manage to plant anew this season.
Another farmer, Jessie Kaunde, also aims for resilience. But her bravest effort failed.
Armed with a $68 loan, she dug two fish ponds in 1999 behind her house north of Blantyre. Since drought struck three years ago, they are nothing but giant grassy pits.
''I am really disappointed,'' she said.
One reason is that other farmers have planted by the river that fed her ponds, causing the riverbanks to cave in and disrupt the water flow. Such planting is illegal but enforcement is weak, said Everhart Nangoma, an environmental specialist formerly with CURE, a nonprofit group focusing partly on climate change.
''Malawi is getting ready, but we are not there,'' Mr. Nangoma said. ''We are not ready at all.'' SHARON LAFRANIERE
Twice a day, 25-year-old Harold Nkhoma checks a series of gauges at the government's weather station here in Malawi's second-biggest city.
He skips the barometer because its light doesn't work and he can't read the figures. He has waited six months for new batteries.
He ignores the evaporation pan designed to show how quickly water is absorbed into the soil. Peeled-off paint and missing wire mesh have left it useless. And he bypasses the glass sphere that measures the duration of sunshine by burning marks on paper strips. It has been out of paper for four years.
His supervisor, Werani Chilenga, is disgusted. Broken equipment, outmoded technology, slipshod data and a sparse scattering of weather stations are all that his national agency can manage on a $160,000 budget.
''We cannot even know the duration of sunshine in our country for four years, so how can we measure climate change?'' said Mr. Chilenga, a meteorological engineer. ''Oh, oh, it is pathetic!''
The lack of meteorological data is just one challenge as Malawi struggles to cope with global warming. Add to that a lack of irrigation; overdependence on a single crop, maize; shrinking fish stocks; vanishing forests; and land degradation.
Last March, Malawi, which has a population of 14 million people and is one of the world's poorest countries, identified $23 million worth of urgent measures it should take in the next three years. It delivered them to the United Nations program that helps poor nations deal with climate change.
A year later, the government is still negotiating with donors. ''It is sad that up until now we have not gotten the monies that have been talked about,'' said Henry Chimunthu Banda, the minister of environmental affairs. That is not to say Malawi is standing still. The government is moving toward bigger grain reserves, changes in agricultural practices and construction of a new dam. Nine out of 10 Malawians are subsistence farmers.
Austin Kampen, 39, is an early adapter. A nonprofit group last year gave him hoses and a huge bucket -- a rudimentary but effective crop sprinkler system.
He plants a variety of maize more likely to survive shorter growing seasons and backs it up with cotton, vegetables, potatoes and cassava.
He still lost his entire harvest in January when the river overflowed after a week of nonstop rain, submerging his seven-acre field and leaving 75 of his neighbors homeless. Still, he said, he will manage to plant anew this season.
Another farmer, Jessie Kaunde, also aims for resilience. But her bravest effort failed.
Armed with a $68 loan, she dug two fish ponds in 1999 behind her house north of Blantyre. Since drought struck three years ago, they are nothing but giant grassy pits.
''I am really disappointed,'' she said.
One reason is that other farmers have planted by the river that fed her ponds, causing the riverbanks to cave in and disrupt the water flow. Such planting is illegal but enforcement is weak, said Everhart Nangoma, an environmental specialist formerly with CURE, a nonprofit group focusing partly on climate change.
''Malawi is getting ready, but we are not there,'' Mr. Nangoma said. ''We are not ready at all.'' SHARON LAFRANIERE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
