The High Court in Lilongwe has ruled that only people who initially appeared on the claimant list having been affected by water contaminated with sewage at Area 18 should be compensated.

The ruling by High Court Assistant Registrar Antony Kapaswiche followed a preliminary objection by the defendants; Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) which objected the additional names of victims.

The Court has since advised that it will reconvene after a period of 21 days for assessment of compensation for over 200 initial victims.

“The way forward is that the Court will proceed to set a date for assessment, today`s was following an objection that was made by MHC and supported by Lilongwe City Council (LCC) that the additional names that were not part of the proceedings all along should be struck out.

And the Court has agreed with the defendants that those names would have to be struck out and we will remain with the initial list of claimants that was there before when the case was staring,” said Isaac Songea, lawyer representing LCC.

One of the lawyers representing the claimants Gift Katundu said they will now go into initial assessments of the compensation for the victims.

“The court has given its directions and it suggests that just as it was pointed out that those who appeared on the summons should be the ones to be assessed, so the court will proceed that way.

The court will proceed that way and within 21 days, and we will now go into the actual assessments,” he said.

According to the amended assessment list, there were over 1300 victims who were praying for compensation.

Area 18 residents were subjected to contaminated water with sewage in 2017, a decision which forced water supplier Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) to change its water-pipe system.

Some victims reported that they had stomache and other health-related complications after using the contaminated water.