Mrs JACQUELINE LEKANI DIAS
Director of Infrastructure Development
SOUTHERN REGION WATER BOARD
Malawi
Industry / Sector
Other ( Water Supply and Sanitation )
Personal Profile
I am Jacqueline Dias from Malawi. i graduated with BSC. in Civil Engineering from the University of Malawi, the Polytechnic. Later went to University of Zimbabwe to pursue master's in integrated water resources management from the University of Zimbabwe.
Professionally I am a Professional Registered Engineer with Malawi Engineering Institutions where I am serving as a Board Member heading Operations Committee. I have worked with Southern Region Water Board since 1998. SRWB is a Parastatal Organization owned by Government by is a non-sub vented meaning its commercially oriented organization financing all operations and maintenance of the organization.
I have served on various positions ranging from Civil Engineer, Planning Engineer, Project Implementation Manager and Zone Manager. Currently i am the Director of Infrastructure Development dealing with planning, designing, implementation and management of all water related infrastructure development.
In my career life, i have designed, implemented and supervised several water supply infrastructures.
When I joined, i was attached to a project financed by World Bank where a Dam with capacity of 3.4Ml with associated treatment plant, service reservoirs and distribution network were under construction. I was attached to the consultant for the whole period of const performing day to day supervision of the contractor. Later i managed several projects too numerous to mention. These structures are standing sound to date.
Currently Iam the Project Manager of one of the projects which is under implementation. Once this project is completed, it will change the face of SRWB.
Company Profile
The Southern Region Water Board (SRWB) derives its mandate from the Water Works Act Cap 72:01 of the laws of Malawi. it is one of the five public utility providers established with a mandate to provide water supply and water borne sanitation in their respective water areas as a commercial and reliant entities. The SRWB took over infrastructure from the then District Water Supply Fund in the southern region. The SRWB is specifically mandated to supply quality and safe water to urban and peri-urban areas of the Southern Region except for the City of Blantyre.
The SRWB has a Board of Directors comprised of 9 members and 4 ex-official members appointed under section 3 of the Water Works Act of 1995. The Board is accountable for the leadership and control of the SRWB. The Board has several sub-committees that assist it in executing its responsibilities under the law. These sub-committees include Finance and Projects, Audit and Establishment and Operations.
The Board reporting lines are threefold thus reports to Ministry of Water and Sanitation which is a technical parent, Ministry of Finance on matters of Finance and finally reports to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) through the Department of Statutory Corporations on governance, general administration and human resource issues.
in terms of organization structure, SRWB has several departments as follows: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Infrastructure, Operations, Human Resource and Administration,
SRWB has a total workforce complement of 363. This represents 70% of established vacancies.