“Get a social license do not bulldoze development, demands activist Mfiti”

In recent media reports from Malawi it has emerged that a senior cabinet minister George Chaponda was chased from a development meeting by angry community members…The project aims at tapping water from Mulanje Mountain through Likhubula River by Blantyre Water Board to residents of Blantyre City. The water shortage problem in Blantyre city has become acute that residents often go without portable clean and safe drinking water for days. This prompted the water Board to hatch this plan of drawing water from the Likhubula River. The River is located in Mulanje District a few kilometres outside Blantyre city.

Ironically the project has not been welcomed by residents of Mulanje district near the Likhubula River who have raised most important human rights concerns. The community members have said the project will not continue unless the government of Malawi helps them in re-afforestation initiatives along the Likhubula River banks. The communities further allege that they also be supplied with clean and safe drinking water…In Malawi projects are often bulldozed through the back door.

The views and concerns of the community are not taken into consideration and consultations are limited to rubber stamping development projects regardless of impacts…The Blantyre Water Board was supposed to do a human rights due diligence in this project to realise their human rights impacts. This is a harsh lesson to government of Malawi.