Malawi
22,7500,00+ total population of Malawi
18% of Malawians have access to safely managed drinking water services.¹
46% of people in Malawi have access to safely managed sanitation facilities.²
Water For People in Malawi
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People in Malawi reached with reliable water servicesMalawi is home to lakes, rivers, cliffs, and wildlife reserves. But it’s best known for the warmth of its people – nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa." Since 2000, Water For People has worked alongside communities and the government to ensure lasting water, sanitation, and hygiene access for every household, school, and health clinic. Through this work, 1.6 million Malawians now have reliable water services.
Still, 82% of households – over 16 million people – lack safely managed water access.³ Girls and women are 10x more likely than boys and men to collect water, walking an average of 52 minutes a day.⁴ This burden limits their education, economic opportunities, and health, reinforcing gender inequities across generations.
Increasingly frequent and severe climate-related disasters compound risks in Malawi. Cyclones, flooding, and droughts damage water and sanitation systems and threaten public health through outbreaks like cholera.⁵
While our approach strengthens local systems to withstand shocks, the growing impacts of climate change have pushed us to adapt even further – from restoring freshwater ecosystems and designing more resilient infrastructure to responding to the needs of the girls, women, and vulnerable populations most affected by these events.
"At the heart of everything we do is water. It is vital that the next generation is born into communities that are climate-resilient."
Ulemu Chiluzi
Country Director, Water For People Malawi
• Implement piped water systems for communities, schools, and health clinics.
• Design climate-resilient infrastructure capable of withstanding extreme weather events such as flooding.
• Train water committees on operation, monitoring, and budgeting for future maintenance.
• Protect water sources through freshwater ecosystem restoration and watershed planning and management.
• Build capacity of local governments and technicians to manage, finance, and maintain water systems.
• Lead community sanitation campaigns to promote the construction, use, and maintenance of toilets.
• Support local sanitation entrepreneurs and establish associations for ongoing professional development and innovation.
• Educate and provide resources for women and girls to manage their periods with dignity.
• Develop lessons for schools about handwashing, good hygiene, and the benefits for health and dignity.
• Build handwashing stations to go with bathrooms in schools and health clinics.
• Advise government Ministries with technical assistance, finance plans, and regulation and policy development and implementation for long-term water and sanitation management.
We are currently implementing Everyone Forever in Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Neno, Ntchisi, and Peru-Urban Blantyre. We are expanding our impact through system-strengthening initiatives in Dowa, Kasungu, and Lilongwe Rural.
Everyone Forever
Water For People brings together communities, local businesses, and governments to build, operate, and maintain their own systems. This approach, called Everyone Forever, supports every household, health clinic,
and school in a district with sustainable water and sanitation services that can be maintained by governments and communities for generations to come. This model is rooted in community engagement and local and national
partnerships, promoting long-term access to water, sanitation, and hygiene across Malawi – even in the face of increasing storms, floods, and droughts caused by climate change.
National Strategy
Lasting access to water, sanitation, and hygiene requires more than short-term solutions – and more than local action alone. That’s why Water For People makes long-term investments and partnerships with districts, while also working at the national level to strengthen policies and financing. In districts like Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Neno, Ntchisi, and Peri-Urban Blantyre, we’ve seen that progress stalls when national systems fall short. That’s why we work closely with Malawi’s Ministry of Water and Sanitation to develop policies, unlock finance, and advocate for high-level commitment – including a national Climate-Resilient Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Financing Strategy and a compact prioritizing WASH work and progress from the President.
Meet The People
Phaiyce is Persevering for Education
Phaiyce has persevered to reach secondary school. At 14, she’s preparing to take exams this year. Yet millions of students won’t reach this point in their education as they drop out due to poor school water, sanitation, and hygiene.
See the Work in Action
Watch how a solar-powered water system is changing what's possible in Neno District, Malawi. This 3-mile (5km) water network now delivers water to more than 12,000 people – reaching homes, schools, markets, and a hospital maternity wing.
¹ ² ³ WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, Malawi Household Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Service Levels, 2024. Safely managed is defined as drinking water from an improved water source that is accessible on premises, available when needed, and free from fecal and priority chemical contamination.
⁴ WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2022: gender pullout, July 2023
⁵ PBS News, "As climate change leads to more and wetter storms, cholera cases are on the rise", Aug 2023.