11 villages share a borehole in Ntchisi

“I can even say that about 500 people share a borehole here,” said Group Village Headman Kanyenda of Kanyenda Village in the southern part of Ntchisi District.

He was outlining some development hurdles people of his area are facing during a meeting with the area’s Member of Parliament. Water scarcity was top of his list.

In a later interview, Kanyenda stood by his claims and said that he has thirteen chiefs under him, that is almost thirteen villages and yet, he said, they all share one bore hole.

“We have Kakumba River as the nearest water source but it only has water during the rainy season,” said Kanyenda.

sked if he is aware of the development, MP for the area who is also Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Ulemu Chilapondwa said he was aware of the problem and said he was trying to try to address the problem.

“Most of these boreholes were dug in 2007 under the Integrated Water Development Programme. Most of them are now defunct and most of them were shallow and thus dried up, I am looking at the issue to see what can be done,” said Chilapondwa.