Waste management still a huge challenge in Lilongwe

 

By Tione Andsen, MANA

Lilongwe City Council came under spotlight for not having proper waste management planning for the City for the past years.

It used to collect garbage within the City way back the 1980’s when Council members were efficient and effective in delivering their service but the absence of those members for a long period of time rendered some services to crumble for good and one of them is garbage collection.

This is near a health clinic

An Area 49 Resident, Aubrey Makina told Malawi News Agency (Mana) Monday in Lilongwe that residents are having tough time to manage their garbage.

He said lots of heaps of waste are just piling within the townships within the city and the Council is doing nothing to address the situation.

“In most parts of residential areas, streets and market places, you will see sorry sites of heaps of garbage which remains unattended to,” Makina said.

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He added that this was the state of affairs in most places and during this rain season it was worst to contain as they act as breeding places for houseflies.

“We are getting worried because the sites can be source of cholera and other water borne diseases which can put residents at risk. 

Area 18 A resident, Mary Msamala said there seems not to any direction in order to resolve the problem of waste management within the communities.

Unattended to rubbish skip

“I can recall that the City Council was appealing to residents to pay their city rates some months ago but I don’t think residents could adhere to that,” she said.

She said paying city rates should be in line with services being provided by the City Council and as of now there is no service worth mentioning.

Private rubbish collection service

“We are in fact paying for private garbage collection of K4,000 a month which is the responsibility of the Council. 

“There is a lot of garbage lying unattended to and this pains us much,” Msamala fumed.

Councillor for Maria ward in Area 49, Patrick Makumba admitted that waste management has been a problem for long time, more especially in market places and selected dumping areas.

Waste and sanitation in Malawi is a challenge

“Just two weeks ago, I made a request to the Council to provide us with garbage collection vehicles to help us remove some of them at several strategic places but they have not responded until now.

Makumba said he would keep on reminding them on the issue until they respond.

The Council’s deputy director of health and cleaning services, Catherine Kunje admitted that waste management has been a problem due to increase in population.

Kunje, the Council’s deputy director of health
and cleaning services

She said the Council was able to collect garbage from township in the 1980s and 90s when the population was about 669,000 but now it’s over a million.

“We do not have the adequate capacity to service the residents as we have few waste collection vehicles at our disposal. We have seven vehicles that are operating while some are broken down,” Kunje explained.

According to her,  the Council requires 45 waste collection vehicles to meet the demand and currently they are able to collect only 20 percent, particularly in market places.

The vehicles also make routine collections once a week in places which have good access roads such as Areas 10, 43, 11 and 12.

“The Council had to change its by-laws on refuse collection in 2017 to enable private operators to complement its efforts. 

“This was done looking at Local Government Law in line with Local Government Act on the issue of waste management procedures by looking at the magnitude of the problem,” she recalled.

Kunje observed that Councils are having difficulties to manage their dumping sites due to low funding levels which are making them not to meet the required standards.

She believes that if Council were being provided with required financial support, they can adequately carry out garbage management.

“We are faced with the problem of enforcing the law in waste management. We normally depend on Department of Environment Affairs in issuing penalties to offenders while the Council only administers minimal penalties. 

“We need to develop new guidelines in order to improve public sanitation in the City,” Kunje said.

Oxfam Country Director, Lingalireni Mihowa said the neglect of urban governance has led to a situation whereby urbanization, estimated at 6.3 percent per annum, has outstripped the government’s capacity to provide services and strategically guide urban growth.

She pointed out that currently, urban governance and management in the country was characterised by a disjointed or fragmented structure that undermines collective action, producing socially suboptimal outcomes in public service delivery.

“The urban governance constraints include; policy incoherence; institutional fragmentation; incomplete decentralisation; the proliferation of service providers; the nature of city politics and the role of informal political incentives,” Mihowa observed.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer for Tilitonse Foundation, Chandiwira Chisi said Oxfam and Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) have been funded to implement governance programmes within Lilongwe City.

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He said the programmes were designed to be implemented in seven months to unable residents to be oriented on governance issues surrounding the service their re getting from the City Council.

“We need to empower residents to rightfully demand services from the authorities using appropriate means. 

“We are hoping the programmes will help the residents to take up the challenge and start demanding services without fear,” Chisi explained.