MALAWI: Lilongwe PPP for Non-Revenue Water Management

The Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) is implementing the World Bank-financed Lilongwe Water and Sanitation Project with the objective to increase access to improved water services and safely managed sanitation services in Lilongwe city. As LWB has been struggling with high levels of water losses due to recurrent pipe bursts, intermittent supply, vandalism, as well as volumes of water being lost through various acts of water theft (including illegal connections), a key focus area is non-revenue water (NRW), and in particular the establishment of an NRW reduction program. PPIAF supported the development of an NRW strategy, the transaction design for a performance-based contract for reducing NRW in selected District Management Areas of Lilongwe that will allow the project to attract private financing, as well as the procurement documentation. The Lilongwe Water Board has already launched the procurement process for the selection of qualified contractors, expecting to result in lower costs and increased revenues. The LWB NRW Strategy has established a decreasing NRW objective with a gradual reduction to 28% in 2024 across various supply zones leading to an estimated annual saving of $159,737.