It is our duty to serve the populations of the areas in which we operate with potable water and reliable water supply. We shall extend our water supply to areas which have been established to have necessary water pressures and meet the demand. The water supply shall also be extended upon request from developers at a fee.

We shall endeavour to supply water within the supply area for 24 hours every day. We may sometimes interrupt water to repair leaks and bursts as such there will be planned interruptions and unplanned interruptions (emergencies).

    Planned Interruptions    

» We shall make effort to minimize interruption to your water supply but on occasions, we need to carry out normal planned maintenance work or to make improvements to the water mains, customers' water supplies sometimes need to be turned off. In this case, every enndeavor shall be made to inform customers at least 48 hours in advance before the supply is disrupted. Every endeavour shall be made to turn water back on at least by the given time. If, for unforeseen reasons, it is not possible to restore the water supply by tghe time stated, customers must be informed by using appropriate media channels that the interruption is going to exceed the planned time

    Unplanned Interruptions    

» In cases where there have been burst water mains, machinery breakdown and otehr emergencies, customers are not able to be warned in advance that their water supply will be interrupted. Every endeavour will be made to respond within 6 hours of the supply disruption.

» In case where the emergency water disruption will not be rectified within 6 hours, we shall inform the customer through the media.

» Where we cannot satisfy the established water demand, we shall publish and communicate through various media channels water rationing schedules for all areas concerned. We shall carry out a daily monitoring of our distribution network and deal with all identified leaks as quickly as possible. This exercise will be done to reduce water losses and ensure availability of water for all our customers. We shall resolve all reported no water situations within 8 hours.

» All reported illegal connections will be uprooted within 2 days. Customers disconnected due to illegal use will be reconnected legally after they have paid the appropriate penalty and upon successfully meeting the Board's terms.

» We shall maintain the water up to the property meter. The pipe work from the property meter to residence remains the responsibility of the customer. You must employ a qualified plumber to carry out all the repairs and modifications to pipes and fittings on your property, which are your responsibility.

» We may require to enter your property ton carry out inspections, routing maintenance and repair work on our rericulation. This will be done during regular business hours except in an emergency. We will provide advance notice of all planned work that may require entry to your property.

»The Board shall reinstate maintenance sites after we have finished any maintenance work as follows:

• Road and pavement reinstatement within 7 days
• Renovation, fixing or maintenance of damaged chambers within 7 days from the date of report.
• Backfilling of all maintenance sites within 24 hours

Where we have pipe mains, we commit to connect all paid up customers. Following an application from the customer, we shall make an assessment to establish accessibility to the property from the main pipeline and adequacy of the pipe and water pressure to accommodate the new connection within 7 days.

After the assessment, we shall respond and provide a quotation to the customer within 7 days

Then the water connection shall be done within 28 days after the payment. We shall provide every connection with a meter at a modest deposit fee to be determined from time to time.

All customers will be required to pay service deposit fee equivalent to two months consumption in cases where the meter is installed. This amount will be paid at the time of new connection and changing account name. This deposit will be refunded when the customer is moving out of the premise. It will be required for the customer to come to the Board to turn off the supply and reclaim the deposit.

We are commited to provide quality water to our customers and the public in an efficient and cost effective manner, ensuring outmost customer satisfaction and continuous service improvement in an environmentally friendly manner. It shall remain the highest priority to supply safe drinking water through continuous monitoring of water supplied. We shall comply to the quality guidelines set by the World Health Organisation and water quality standards by the Malawi Bureau of Standards. We shall also immediately alert you of any critical water quality problem.

All the problems with water quality shall be treated as a priority and immediately. If a customer complains about the quality of water supply, arrangements will be made to respond within 3 hours of the initial contact or by arrangement with the customer. Wherever the situation is serious and affects a large area, announcement on caution and measures to be taken will be done immediately.

Billing Cycle

We shall maintain a 30 days billing cycle for all post-paid customers. The billing shall be based on the consumption as recorded from the meter

Bill Distribution

We shall distribute water bills to our post-paid customers' premises by the 23rd of every month. We shall post all post-paid customer bills on the website by the 18th of every month. Every customer shall be obliged to request for their bill from our zones, customer service centers, head office or call our hotlines should they not receive it by the 30th of the month.

The Board at times will also use other technologies in communicating with customers on their bills.

Billing History

Upon request by a customer, the Board will provide the customer's account and usage history for any period at a fee. Customers can also access billing history of their account on our website www.bwb.mw. For prepaid customers, they can use the same website to recover lost tokens.

Bill Payments

We offer our customers to pay their water bills through the following payment oprions:

• Customer Service Centers in Limbe, Chichiri, Blantyre, Soche and Kameza
• Over the counter payments in selected banks and mobile services (NBS, National Bank, Standard Bank, ECO Bank, FDH, FMB, Airtel Monet and TNM Mpamba).
• Automatic Teller Machine Payments
• Electronic funds transfer

Changes made to these options will be communicated to our dear customers. And any innovations in this field will be utilized from time to time.

We shall ensure that all payments to customer accounts are updated by 8am on the following day

A customer that has been disconnected for non-payment will be reconnected after clearing all the outstanding balances and upon payment of the outstanding fee at the time.Such reconnection shall be done within 72 hours.

ALl disconnected customers who require reconnection shall make their payments at the Board's Customer Service Centers for reconnection at those centers.

Accounts disconnected on the customer's request will be reconnected upon the account holder's request and after paying the reconnection fee.

Meter Reading

We shall read all meters once every 30 days cycle for post-paid customers. Where it is not possible due to faulty meters, gate locked, vicious dogs etc., a reasonable estimate will be determined using previous consumption trends of the last three consecutive actual readings. The consumed units will be indicated on the bills and where a reading is estimated, the same will be indicated on the bill. Where the bills are estimated, the accounts shall be automatically corrected upon receipt of actual readings in subsequent months.

Faulty Meter Replacement

If a water meter is found to be faulty, the Board will repair or replace it within 7 days of being notified.

When the meter is stolen, the customer is required to report to Police and obtain the Police Report before coming to the Board for meter replacement. When the meter is stolen or damaged, the customer is required to meet the replacement cost of the meter. Such meters will be replaced within 7 days after payment.

Meter Testing

If you believe your meter is overcharging, you may request that we test it for you at a fee. Upon request by the customer, we will test the meter for accuracy.

When the meter is found to be operating outside the prescribed tolerances, the Board shall provide a meter to the customer which will be observed for 3 months to determine the customer's actual consumption. The Board will use the consumption trend of the new meter to adjust your water account if the account was overcharged or undercharged.

We shall strive to provide excellent service to all customers. The Board will ensure that all staff are presentable, easily identifiable, informed, knowledgeable and well trained to meet customer expectations and satisfaction.

We shall ensure a conducive environment for customers to carry out business transactions. Annual customer surveys and stakeholder workshops shall be conducted to assess customer needs and ensure continual service delivery improvement.

All customers will be assisted within 10 minutes after presenting themselves at the customer service desk.

We shall resolve all water accounts queries within 7 days.

If your query or complaint can't be resolved within the prescribed timeframes, we will advise you of our suggested course of action and a specific timeframe, and the name of the appropriate contact person for further queries.

If you are not satisfied with the solution offered or action taken by us, you have the right to escalate your complaint to be reviewed by a Senior Manager or Director. You also have the right to seek resolution by meeting the Chief Executive Officer.