- The President of Malawi, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, just witnessed the re-commissioning of the Kamuzu 1 dam in Malingunde.
- The facility supplies the capital Lilongwe with drinking water.
The Kamuzu 1 dam is now working again after being fixed for more than five years (from 2018 to 2023). It was reopened on August 8, 2023, in Malingunde. The President of Malawi, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, and other officials, including those from the Lilongwe Water Board (LWB), who managed the water project, were present at the event. This is the second time the Kamuzu 1 dam has been improved. The first time was in 1987 when its height was raised by 1.2 meters. This made it able to hold more water, from 3.5 million cubic meters when it was built in 1966 to 5.1 million cubic meters.
The recent improvements included raising the dam by 7 meters with 5 meters of concrete and 2 meters of rubber material. This rubber part helps control how water flows between Kamuzu 1 and Kamuzu 2 dams; after this work, the dam’s ability to hold water increased from 5.1 million cubic meters to 25 million cubic meters. Also, the dam now provides enough water for 12 months instead of just four months, ensuring the people in Lilongwe City and nearby areas have drinking water whenever they need it, as explained by Chairman Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.
The project also brought about the Malingunde water supply system. When it’s done, this system will give drinking water to the Malingunde Trading Centre and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Luanar) in Bunda. The whole project cost €27 million, which was funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB).