Navigating Central Government Influence: Insights from the Lilongwe Water Program and Lake Malawi - Salima Pipeline Projects

Abstract

The Malawi government, in collaboration with Lilongwe Water Board, has initiated the Lilongwe Water Program, an investment strategy aimed at addressing water security needs in Lilongwe. This paper focuses on two projects within the program, the World Bank funded Lilongwe Water and Sanitation project whose aim is to increase access to water and sanitation services, alongside the Salima-Lilongwe pipeline project whose aim is to increase water availability in Lilongwe. These projects have been arenas for negotiations between local, national, and transnational actors regarding financing and implementation. Despite prevailing development policies advocating for building of local government capacities, these projects illuminate the dominance of central government interests. In the Salima-Lilongwe pipeline project, central government has pursued implementation despite opposition from donor partners, and civil society, by establishing a special purpose vehicle to isolate risk and manage the project through local commercial bank loans. The Lilongwe Water and Sanitation project also shows the influence of the central government. Acting as negotiating partners in securing project funding, central government plays a key role, particularly through the Lilongwe Water Board, a self-sustaining statutory corporation which is emerging as a pocket of effectiveness in Malawi. The water board’s pursuit of profit, driven by network expansion and the taking over of sanitation responsibilities from local government, underscore the desire by the central government to make the institution profitable. These cases show the persistence of central government actor interests in shaping urban water projects in Lilongwe, contrary to the international policy rhetoric of building local government capacity.