Personal Profile
Robert Hanjahanja is a Water and Sanitation Specialist with passion for serving the urban poor with sustainable water and sanitation solutions. He is currently Chief Executive Officer for Blantyre Water Board. Prior to this, he was Deputy Chief of Party with RTI for USAID's E-WASH program in Abuja, Nigeria. He also was Chief Director for Irrigation and Water Development in the Ministry of Agriculture & Water Development (Malawi) and is the former CEO for Southern Region Water Board. Prior to this, he was a consultant with Castalia Strategic Advisors in a reform project for Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company. He worked for TetraTech on USAID-SUWASA for 5 years in their regional office in Nairobi and assisted in the development and coordination of their reform initiative for the nine countries that SUWASA worked in i.e. Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal. He has also been Deputy CEO (Engineering)for Lilongwe Water Board, in Malawi. He was also Country Director for Habitat for Humanity, an NGO which provides sustainable low cost housing solutions for the poor. Robert is a Registered Utility Management Specialist with Institute of Public- Private Partnerships (IP3) in the (USA) and is a Registered Engineer with the Malawi Board of Engineers. He holds a Doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nairobi with focus on Water Service Delivery Options to the Urban Poor.
Company Profile
Blantyre Water Board is a parastatal organization established in 1929 and was reconstituted under the Water Works Act No. 17 of 1995 to supply potable water to the City of Blantyre, parts of Thyolo and Chiradzulu Districts in a sustainable manner. The Board supplies a population of about 1,200,000 in its area of operations with 69,000 metered connections. It has a staff compliment of 656. The Board’s vision is to be a dynamic, reliable, effective, efficient and good quality water supply and sanitation services provider. The mission of the Board is to provide reliable and affordable water supply services to its customers whilst effectively contributing to the development of the national economy and sustenance of the environment