Once connected, customers are under obligation to pay bills in proportion to the volume of water consumed or utilized. Water supply disconnection takes place on all accounts with outstanding bills of 30 days and reconnection is only effected upon payment of full outstanding bill and a reconnection fee of Five Thousand Kwacha (K5,000.00). The Board also disconnects water supply to those that are involved in illegal water connections.

High bills ensue owing to increased charges on a registered bill. This can be triggered by a number of factors, including underground unnoticed water leakages, leaking taps, an increase in the number of users, or an increase in usage stemming from various occurrences or situations. Customers are required to see to it that leaking pipes or taps within their premises are swiftly attended to in order to avoid unnecessary high bills. To avoid high bills, customers are advised to:

• Turn off taps tightly while not in use.
• Wash kitchen utensils, fruits and vegetables in a basin instead of running water from the tap.
• Do not let the water run while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face/ hands.
• Do not use running water to defrost meat or other frozen foods.
• Soak pts and pans instead of letting the water run while you scrape them clean.
• Make sure your home is leak-free. Fix all water leakages in your home.
• Do not waste water waiting for it to get hot. Capture it for other uses.
• Maintain service lines after the meter to avoid water loss through leakage.
• Bath your pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.
• Avoid flushing toilets unnecessarily.
• Check toilet leaks by adding coloring to the Cistern.
• Train children to turn off faucets tightly after use.
• Water your garden with used water.

When a meter is stolen, the customer is required to report the matter to the police before coming to the Board for meter replacement. The customer is required to meet the replacement cost of the meter when their meter is stolen. The meters will be replaced following payment by customers.

Customers can now pay their bills online through National Bank banknet, FDH Oneclick, Standard bank 247 Online, NBS EazyOnline, Ecobank Online and First capital bank. Mobile payments are also available via TNM Mpamba and Airtel Money.

Blantyre Water Board's tariff structure can be accessed here

Blantyre Water Board's Service Centres are as follows:

• Chichiri Customer Service Centre – Northgate Arcade, Masauko Chipemphere Highway.
• Soche Customer Service Centre – Soche East Mall, Kapeni Road
• Blantyre Customer Service Centre – Everest House, Lower Scatter Road.
• Kameza Customer Service Centre – Petroda Mall, Chileka Roundabout.
• Limbe Customer Service Centre – Ex Limbe Leaf Offices, Partridge Avenue.
• Bangwe Customer Service Centre – Bangwe Post Office Building, off Midima Road.

Blantyre Water Board has a decentralized structure that ensures quick and efficient decision making. BWB has three Zone offices which are under the leadership of Zone Managers. Zone offices coordinate the following activities:

• Meter reading and billing
• Meter reading and billing
• Handling customer complaints
• Connections of new customers
• Detection of illegal connection
• Repair and replacement of mains - Handling faults
• Maintenance of Mains

Blantyre Water Board Zone offices are located as follows:

• Soche Zone – Off Kwacha road, Next to Malawi Housing Corporation Offices.
• Kabula Zone - Along Chileka Road at Nyambadwe Reservoirs, first turn right from Blantyre after Nyambadwe Peoples.
• Kabula Zone - Along Chileka Road at Nyambadwe Reservoirs, first turn right from Blantyre after Nyambadwe Peoples.
• Limbe Zone - Ex-Limbe Leaf Offices, along Partridge Avenue.

When in doubt of the overall accuracy or performance of a meter and the readings delivered, customers can request for their meters to be tested at a fee. Such requests and the accompanying payments should be made at the Board's customer service centers, where customers will then be advised accordingly and assisted.

Customers are advised to report instances where their CIU's fail to connect to meters to check balances or load tokens. Customers are strictly advised not to tamper with the meters or CIU's in such instances to try to resolve the problem, but to report to the customer contact center on 5580 or via WhatsApp on 0888 100 700 or 0994 866 666. To maintain full functionality of CIUs, customers are reminded to ensure that they are kept clean at all times, and kept in a dry area away from moisture while not in use.

The minimum charge is levied from 0 – 5000 liters (0-5m³). Minimum charges are also levied in some cases where customers cannot be billed for various reasons. In these cases, minimum charges are applied on a case by case basis.

Disparities may occur due to technical faults or errors. In such cases, where disparities are observed, customers can raise complaints at the customer service centers, or via the customer call center line 5580.

Meter reading is done once in a 30 day's cycle. Where this is not possible due to faulty meters, locked gates, vicious dogs etc a reasonable estimate is determined using previous consumption trends of the last three month's consecutive actual readings. The consumption will be indicated on the bills, and where readings are estimated, the same will be indicated on the bill. Where bills are estimated, the accounts shall be automatically corrected upon receipt of actual readings in subsequent months.

Faults can be reported at the Board's customer service centers, or via WhatsApp on (+265) 888 100 700 or (+265) 994 866 666. Faults can also be reported via the customer call center line 5580, or online through Online Fault Reporting.

To report theft, bribery, corruption, fraud, illegal water connections and vandalism, customers and the general public can report to the BWB call center on 5580, or via WhatsApp on 0888 100 700/ 0994 866 666. These can also be reported online.

Fault sweeping exercises are initiatives carried out by Blantyre Water Board where large scale maintenance works are executed on main pipes and other BWB facilities in order to ensure that the Board's services remain reliable and efficient. These are carried out periodically across all of the Board's zones.

The process involved in water production starts from the extraction of water from Blantyre Water Board's sources, namely, the Shire River at Walkers Ferry Treatment Plan, the Mudi Dam at Mudi Works Treatment plant, the Mulanje/Nguludi Treatment plant, and Boreholes at Lunzu, Hynde and Bvumbwe.

The water extracted from the surface sources i.e. rivers/dams, known as raw water, is then directed to the Treatment Plant's pre - settlement tanks, where the initial treatment process begins by naturally allowing particles in the water to settle down at the bottom of the tanks. The water then flows to coagulant chambers where the flocculation process takes place, after which it flows to Clarifiers where sedimentation begins in order to remove silt particles from the raw water. The water then flows through filters to completely remove all the suspended particles from the water, after which it undergoes chlorination to finalize the treatment process.

Having undergone processing, the processed water is then directed to Blantyre Water Board's pumping stations, where it is finally pumped into various Service Reservoirs (Tanks) from where it is then supplied to the Blantyre Water Board's customer consumption areas/Zones.