2: Irrigation & Water Development

Ensure that water resources are well protected and managed to meet agricultural, domestic and industrial demands.

Other Information:

Irrigation and water development is key for Malawi due to its direct linkages with agriculture and energy. Irrigation will contribute towards reduction of the over dependence on rain-fed agriculture while proper conservation of water will also contribute towards the generation of electricity. In addition, water is also an important resource for both household and industrial use hence ensuring availability of water is therefore central to achieving the MGDS objectives. Management of water supply and sanitation draws many players from donor community, public entities, civil society and private institutions. Significant progress has been made with the introduction of coordination structures for the various players in the sector. Despite this, the sector faces challenges with the degradation of water resources, inadequate services coverage, increasing water demand as a result of increasing population, HIV and AIDS prevalence, insufficient capacity, inadequate promotion of hygiene and sanitation, lack of an integrated approach to water resources management and development, climate change and lack of mitigation measures for water-related disasters. On water resource management, the challenges are several, and these include lack of a good monitoring and evaluation system, and a good management information system resulting in improper documentation of information and lack of a consolidated database on water point allocations. In addition, vandalism and theft of water supply and sanitation facilities is wide spread in the sector. Key Strategies -- To achieve sustainable and integrated water resource management and development, Malawi will need more efficient and effective practices by among other things, empowering national authorities to manage using integrated water resource management approach and establish good monitoring systems. The provision of water will also be linked closely to agriculture and other environmental problems that affect water supply such as soil erosion due to poor farming practices. Main strategies include the following: * Constructing and promoting small and medium scale irrigation schemes to enhance food crop production. * Constructing multi-purpose dams that apart from generating electricity will also be used for irrigation, piped water supply, as well as promoting fish farming. * Improving sustainable access to water supply and sanitation in urban, periurban and rural areas by establishing water supply and sanitation systems using demand responsive and demand driven approaches, and the establishment of contingency water supply reserves and sanitation backups. * Integrating rural water supply and participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation. * Empowering national authorities to manage water resources using integrated water resource management approaches; * Establishing good monitoring systems; * Improving the quality of surface and ground water and developing a system for pollution control; * Improving sustainable access to water supply and sanitation in urban, peri urban and rural areas by among others establishing water supply and sanitation systems using demand responsive and demand driven approaches; * Establishing contingency water supply reserves and sanitation backups; and * Integrating rural water supply with participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation.

Objective(s):

2.1: Access

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