Malawi President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera will on Tuesday commission of the new Malingunde Dam following the raising and rehabilitation of the water reservoir.

The raised dam, popularly known as Kamuzu Dam, now has a capacity of 25 million cubic metres from 5 million capacity.

According to Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) which initiated the project, the raised dam and once a new Treatment Works 3 is completed, is set to increase water production capacity to 175,000 cubic metres per day that is add an additional production capacity of 50,000 cubic
meters per day to the existing production capacity of 125,000.

The raising and comprehensive rehabilitation and commissioning of the dam is a strategic initiative aimed at meeting current water demand and sustaining supply in the City of Lilongwe and other surrounding areas.

The raising and rehabilitation of Kamuzu Dam 1 was financed to the tune of EUR 27
Million with EUR20 Million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the Lilongwe Water Resources.

The Government of Malawi and the Lilongwe Water Board contributed EUR7 Million, mainly towards compensations for project affected persons and re-construction of infrastructure affected levels.

The commissioning also include the implementation of the Malingunde Water Supply System, a 5,000 cubic meters per day water supply system abstracting raw water from the rehabilitated and raised Kamuzu Dam 1 which will serve residents of Malingunde, and Lilongwe University of
Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) Bunda Campus.