Driving to Salima from Lilongwe is adventurous. The meandering descent into Lake Malawi offers plenty for optical nutrition.

The diminishing scenery of the capital city in tail and the fast-approaching attractive crop fields, reveal the preoccupation of the majority of the people living here.

A rail-line pierces through the bushes; occasionally disturbing the peace of the bitumen road attacking the miles into the calendar lake some 130 kilometers ahead.

Conspicuos in all this is freshly dug huge trench almost the entire 130 plus kilometres that’s sandwich Salima and Lilongwe districts. Construction of the Salima-Lilongwe Water Supply Project is now under way on the M14 either way.

But the beauty you see out here only sugar coats reality in the lives of the people.

“Most people who present with diarrhea are children who are under-five. When this project is completed, such waterborne diseases will go down,” stresses Yananga Mwase, Hospital-in-Charge at Grace Community Health Centre in Dowa district.

In 2023, Cholera struck the area of Traditional Authority Chiwere in Dowa.

When it was contained months later, two of the 196 people who were infected died. But challenges of access to potable water remain a nightmare. Yapola village also in Dowa district, has a single borehole.

Scores of women from this village are up as early as three or four daily. They scramble at the borehole for access to the limited resource

This is water that is used at household level for cooking, bathing, drinking and all other chores. The same water is used for livestock.

It is a predicament that not only affects their health, but also socio-economic well-being as they spend a lot of time fetching this water.

“We wake up by 3 o’clock in the morning, coming here. We are on long queues for hours only to draw water around mid-day. Sometimes we return home with dry pails. Our expectation is that when this water project is through, the challenges will be history,” Zione Patulani from the area says.

Rosemary Yosefe is also a resident of Yapola village. She too longs for the day the burden of having to hunt for water will end.

“The high demand and scramble for water sparks disputes at the borehole. It creates problems among women especially. In the past, we relied on rivers. They dried up. The Salima-Lilongwe Water project will, without a doubt, improve the situation. WE shall no longer need to walk long distances looking for water,” says Yosefe.

Gift Trapence chairs the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC). Here is how he describes the investment and potential to transform; “These are the projects that the Malawi government should invest in. It is a futuristic project. It will go beyond a generation. It is also a project that will improve the country’s economy.”

For rights advocate, Undule Mwakasungula, Salima-Lilongwe Water Supply Project is long overdue government project; “It’s important that the contractor, Khato Civils, meets the deadline so that communities along the pipeline can access potable water.

 “It’s not just about the deadline but also ensuring that people have safe water as a necessity. The importance of this project cannot be over-emphasized,” he says.

The Salima-Lilongwe water supply system shall supply 50 million litres of water per day to Lilongwe. Although the project is expected through in 2027, at least 1,5 million people will access the water on completion of first phase in March of 2026.

“Pipes earmarked for section Lifuwu to Katengeza, are being delivered already. We have not faced major challenges except for shortage of some materials but the management is putting a lot of emphasis on solving those challenges,” says Engineer Kondwani Gidala, Khato Civils Projects Planner of the K535.bn project.

The project, initiated by the Malawi government, aims to stop challenges of access to potable water for people of Salima, Dowa and Lilongwe rural and city.

Valentine Kaupa, Chief Executive Officer for Salima-Lilongwe Water Supply company. He is upbeat about progress of the massive Malawi government initiative.

“We are making good progress. The pipes are ow nup and running. And most concrete works will have been finished by December. We will have begun installation of pipelines between Salima and Lilongwe,” prays Kaupa.

St. Mathias Primary School in Dowa enrolls over 1,500. And Dickson Kandioni Kampanda is the head-teacher there. He is upbeat that completion of the water project will improve school enrolment as in the past a good number fetched water.

“We have got poor attendance of learners every day. Most learners are busy helping parents fetch water at home. Sometimes they come to school late and miss a lot. Now, we expect enrolment to shoot because the problem will have been eliminated,” he says an expectation that Group Village Headman Kauma also shares.

The jurisdiction of the traditional leader has at least a population of 600.

“People are struggling to access clean water with only a few boreholes. If government supplies us with good and safe water through this project, we would be glad and thankful,” says GVH Kauma adding “It shall reduce all these challenges”.

Irrigation agriculture is one area farmers on this stretch of land would like to venture into. Access to such plentiful of water from Lake Malawi could also help the farmers. The construction underway has also aided a boom of the economic activity there.

At sites such as Mvera, Lifuwu, Katengeza water pump stations, men and women attest to the sudden economic gains with the project.

Ireen Chimutu lives in Mvera; “We are learning new skills, and how things are run here. Now, through the wages we are receiving, we are able to fend for our families.”

Another worker at the site, Edson Kamatira says his life is now stable. “I used to rely on casual work such as like sand mining but now I have steady income.”

The socio-economic gains of the multibillion Kwacha Salima-Lilongwe Water Supply project to millions in communities in Salima, Dowa and Lilongwe cannot be over emphasized. It is clear that the people want any stumbling blocks cleared.