Impact of curbing political interference in community water supply services, Blantyre, Malawi

Many quarters of development sections are increasingly calling for developmental participation of local people and community organisations in the design and implementation of service delivery models. The school of thought has shifted from the conventional “need based” endeavours to more “asset based” approach that try to understand how best to leverage the existing social and material capital for development and social change. The process of establishing a Water Users Association as a community management model for local water service delivery in low income area of Ndirande-Malabada, turned to be a challenge due to political interference on kiosk management. However through the application of various strategies it helped to form a WUA which is yielding significant results like improving water level of service from 54% to 98% within a period 18 months. This paper illustrates the strategies applied and the short-term results being realised through the WUA model in Ndirande-Blantyre, Malawi