Cleaner cities in Malawi: who is responsible?

Dear MAKNET members,

Welcome once again to a new discussion on the 'Cleaner Cities: who is responsible?'
The objective of the discussion is to attempt to find ways of making sure that our cities and townships are clean. We all are aware of our surroundings.
What can be done? Who is responsible and what strategies can be put in place? Please feel free to comment either in English or Chichewa.
For more information about the topic, please refer to the introduction above.

Share the knowledge!!

 Martha
Let us replace "cleaner" with "sustainable" . Contributions emanating from this will have a wider implications of policy options and strategies for developing cities.

What communities and authorities do about environmental sanitation is the key.. what is the attitude [towards environmental sanitation] of the citizens and authorities responsible for municipal services ?  How are we dealing with "waste" from our activities?
What strategies should the city and town authorities engage to improve the sanitation of the cities?
The first step is mass education on adding value to what we commonly think is waste.  Somebody's waste is someone else's (raw) material. So in the waste management chain, there might be NO WASTE at all. The next step is to practice the 4 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover) followed by safe disposal of what must be finally disposed.  Authorities must change citizens' and institutional attitudes towards waste at home, in industries and in public places.  Seek and use knowledge, technology and infrastructure for processing waste.  Examples abound from many places. Authorities should take the small steps on what can be done in any community and scale up with improvements in infrastruture and techninology and changes in attitudes. they should provide adequate services in the waste management chain.
What should be the role of the communities and individuals to ensure their townships are clean and smart?
charity begins at home.  individuals should manage their own waste in a manner that allows reuse (by others or themselves). Two examples: biodegradable materials can be composited and sold for use in combination with fertilizers for growing plants (food crop, flowers, ...);  plastics can be recycled or reused. communities should take communal responsibility to keep their communities clean depending on specific environemental sanitation issues in their own communities.     
What incentives could be put in place to reward compliant townships/individuals?
the best incentive is to provide reliable and affordable efficient municipal services [in environmental sanitation]which respond to township-specific sanitation issues.  issues such as sewer systems or speting tank emptying services, collection and disposal services for garbage; solid waste dump sites or land fills. provide dust bins and a collection service; provide mass education on reuse/recycling; partnerships with private providers where they are available. industrialize the waste management chain.  
What penalties could be put in place to punish non compliant members?
municipal courts should have powers to impose community service sentences so that non-compliant members are obliged to do community service cleaning the environment in their own townships. If fine option is used, the fines should be significant enough as to be a deterrent but also to provide the municipal authorities revenue for improving services. 

i should commend this topic especially coming at this time when sanitation plays a big role with the rains.
i think there is need to understand the working relationship between city assembleys and the Ministry of health.My own take is that Cities are often short interms of capacity to deliver on issues of sanitation.
Now that we have lots of NGOs implementing on HIV and AIDS, may be its high time some take up the ssues of sanitation to augment the city and MOH efforts.
the political will sometimes also plays a role in how our cities look.Any time we have the police moving around towns on temporary operations, the cities are clean-atleast by the road sides.
Through out Africa,locations where the poor live have auwful sanitation records.We should also look at policies that uplift the living standards of all citizens.Where people's immediate need is food,they will over look other areas of life.

What strategies should the city and town
authorities engage to improve the sanitation of the cities?
Our
seasoned city and town assembly authorities already know which actions to take
since we shouldn’t say today that the problem is new. What is needed is having
authorities in our towns and cities revisit their duties and execute them.
Places for sanitation activities are very few and it seems the authorities are
only sticking to revenue collection instead of balancing it with refuse
collection and waste dumping reviews. Another important thing is having our
refuse dumping system rehabilitated. For instance, sewerage pipes that are old
and punctured must be replaced with new ones. I wished Honourable Dr. George
Chaponda was reallocated to the Local Government so that he can continue from
where he stopped. Removing vendors was a success, let him come back and address
problems of sanitation.
What should be the role of the communities
and individuals to ensure their townships are clean and smart?
Malawians
must know that according to me, 40% of the untidy conditions in our country are
contributed by us the Malawian citizens through deliberately disposing off
refuse anyhow. Imagine, someone in a bus or minibus throwing a maize pith  through the window into the street or street
sides instead of keeping it in a plastic bag and later disposing it off into a
rubbish bin. Just today 13th December 2010 as I was waiting for my
work-place staff bus, in the outskirts of Naisi in Zomba, I saw a decently
looking man waiting for a minibus along the main road from Machinga to Zomba coughing
and spitting sputum on the roadside pavement just like that. This is also
happening in our towns and cities. We happen to take everything simple, easy and
less harmful because it is us doing it. Please Malawians, let’s work on our
responsibility for our actions.
What incentives could be put in place to
reward compliant townships/individuals?
Public
Awards and some cash or kind items should be conferred upon those that are
compliant. This should be sponsored by both Government and Private sector.
What penalties could be put in place to
punish non compliant members?
Monetory
fines can be a way of controlling non-compliance. Another penalty can be
suspending e.g. businesses that are untidy or condoning bad sanitation,
sometimes even closing-up such premises to enforce compliance.
 
In all, it all rests in the mindsets of both decision-makers and
communities to work towards a change of civilization towards achieving sanitary
competence that matches with global conditions. As such, Malawi shall enhance
its image of being the Warm Heart of Africa which may be slowly fading out on
sanitation grounds mainly not only by authorities but also by Malawians who are
the principal stakeholders on this issue.
 

I think both residents and the people entrusted to run the affairs of the city are responsible. The technocrats at the city councils are employed to discharge duties such waste disposal management. The cities at the sametime do collect city rates in different areas such land and business. These revenues, I guess were meant to help in paying for such services. Therefore, proper fiscal discipline in the councils would greatly help making sure that every tambala that a city resident pays goes into such services as waste disposal. At the same time the residents themselves have to play restraint in some actions. They is no reason for one to dump refusal just below the skips in case of some in lilongwe city. They should also make sure they buy dustbin for easy collection by the sanitation guys from the council.

Kuthemba,
I agree with you on the remedies proposed. But don't you think we may be underplaying the need for civic education on sanitation in our country just like HIV/AIDS messages? I believe that some people in Malawi today are refraining from risky behaviours just because of media messages and public addresses on the same. Let's try this one and see the impact. Tifalitse uthengawu practically. How about that friends?

Mike,
Yes, Civic education would also be a best way in informing the both the residents and the city technocrats. Therefore, the technocrats should make sure that the city rates they collect is made known to the residents. Sometimes, it feels good when you know to what use is you money going to be used.
For instance, development activities in some churches, people to give during paper sunday coz they know what will that money be used for.
On the civic education again, the city technocrats have public health officers under their fold, they could be the ones taking out the messages on how we can all keep our cities clean. Do you remember the campaign logo that has been on plastic bags that states "keep our cities"? if the technocrats were smart enough they could have utilised such.
The frequency of refuse collection will also be another area we need to look at. I too do agree with you!!!

Malawi needs to enforce on environmental rights and environmental education. I think a lot has been done in Malawi to train profesionals in environmental management but less is being done in the implementation of the policies and educating the grassroots. We have to accept that this is a new field all together and previously there was less that  was talked about the environment but now the evil that men have done to it, is living after them and there is need to educate rural masses on environmental management.
The government has to come up with deliberate policies and enforce the policies, for example in Rwanda noone is allowed to use plastic bags and you know what a saving this can make to the environment. The Rwanda government  is sereous on this and one can be arrested for using a plastic bag. What about in Malawi, how many people do we come accross urinating behind the tree right in the middle of the town? Something must be done.
 

Banning plastic bags is one option.  Reuse is another.  google  trashybags.com

I remember when I was young,staying in Ndola Lines in Zomba,there used to be flower garden competition run byu municipality.household used to be motivated to keep their sorrounding clean and plantinh flowers all around the house.then a ceremony to award winners was being done at the community centre.I think this can be revived and be emulated in all cities and town.

I'm glad Malawi got rid of public toilets. And please don't bring them back until our attitudes change. Those courages enough to be users of these public 'inconveniences' used to wade in ankle deep water and urine just to get to the urinal or toilet seat.
Toilet paper? You must be kidding! The walls used to smelly murals owing to people using them to wipe themselves after depositing their solid wastes. Some never even bother to tip-toe to the urinal or toilet seat at all. They would just find some hitherto unused space and do their deed.
Our public toilets were more labs for germ warfare than places for our convenience.
The same attitude is also evident in how we deal with other waste. People shell, eat groundnuts and throw the shells as they walk along city streets. The same with banana peels, mango and sugar cane whatevers. People throw litter onto the streets as they drive along in their posh cars.
Go in some locations with the cities and you'll find residents happily dumping rubbish in heaps right in front of their houses. Yes, the city don't collect refuse but you mean you can't dig a small rubbish pit?
 
 
 

Private companies and traders are also contributing to this problem. We need to start collecting environmental and waste management levies from companies that particulalry sell fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) like bottling and brewing companies; cigarette companies and plastic paper bag manufacturers, just to mention a few.
We also need to start charging for plastic/ carrier bags in the shops. This can be done by having say a 'retailers and wholesalers association' just like the Minibus Owners Association, so that issues like these can have channels of implemntation. What is MEET (Malawi Environmental Endowment Trust) doing?
As mentioned by other members on the panel, let's also advocate for extensive investment in publicity about waste management.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dear Maknet Memmbers,

There are good suggestions from the members. Most agree that there is need to change our mindset especially on how we dispose waste in our cities and towns. There is also agreement that the City and Town Authorities need to play their proper role.

I was however attracted to the question of attitude, civic education, poverty and role of private sector.

First, a number of members including Khumbo, Kuthemba and Wakochimawo have written something on attitude, that as Malawians we need to change our attitude. Can we share the cause of this attitude problem. Is it because we are interacting with a Common Property Resources, the city sorrounding? Or is it a culture of poverty that Wakochimawo is refering to? I think a good understanding of this root can help us with solutions.

Then there is the issue of civic education. My understanding at present civiv education can help. But for how long. Is it not costly. May be there is need to highlight the shortfalls in our education. Does it help our children to be responsible as they grow. Or is there Environmental education in our curriculum. I understand at one time Domasi College of Education was on TVM with "Domasi is a free Litter Zone". Has it worked? If yes what can we learn from them. Friends from that institution, you may consider sharing.

Back again to poverty, is there need to consider development together with clean cities, Maslows' hierarchy of needs.

Then there is the issue of private sector. It is a known fact that they greatly contribute to unclean cities. How can we take them on board? How can they utilise "opportunity in calamity" by making wastes rwa materials eg biofuels, manure the 4 rs already mentioned.

Nice time as you respond to these questions.

Recycling of waste, why iisnt there someone who could start recycling waste.isn't it a viable business.ma entrepreuners where are they

Change of attitude:
Hie Sane, I hereby agree with the point of change of attitude and also inclusion of Environmental Education in our national curriculum. These two can harmoniously go together if we start by including environmental education deliberately in our national curriculum. for information, I happen to be in the curriculum development field here at MIE and  Allistar Ross (2000) wrorte that : A curriculum is any socially constructed or prescribed activities, selected in some way from the culture of that society, that results in th etransformation if the individual.
Thus, all we need to do is to strategise and make an intrusion into the national curriculum development process so that if cleanliness and sanitation are a priority to our country, we declare that our society has a goal that needs to be met through training the population using formal education. I think the mindsets of people would start to change. I can take this as one of the steps to make a breakthrough in our country's cleanliness objectives that ar efar much behind.
If Gender balance issues are now being implemented, what more about sanitation and cleanliness? And the country can take advantage of the compulsory subject called LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION in our schools. I think this issue lies inside the Life Skills realm. What do others think on this?

You are right Mike
I feel government really needs to commit to the cause of ensuring proper sanitation in our cities and towns. we are doing fime with issues of gender and even HIV/AIDS. i think if sanitation is also mainstreamed in the curriculum , it can help. There is an NGO called Water  and Sanitation  something in BT. I will invite them maybe they could have some insights that they can share

Italy has banned plastic bags effective 1st January 2011. More at http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/31/italy-bans-plastic-bags-in-2011/ 

Lets Think Outside the Box
The discussion has been quite. Hope it was because of the festivals. Its 2011. Having gone through the discussions, I request for your input in those areas, all of which were suggested in the priliminary discussions. Can I request the following again to suggest a way forward on their proposed ideas/understanding: Mr/Miss/Dr Kuthemba, Mike Chilemba, Gift Livata, Khumbo Shaba, Ben, Daliso. Your input is of paramount importnace.

Firstly, ideas from MIE about behaviour change are important. Mr. chilemba, how can issues of behaviour change towards sanitation in cities be implemented? What role can schools, colleges and academia play. This is a long term solution but a sustainable one. Do you feel this is manageble. What is the way forward. Mr. Livata, Daliso also had ideas on behaviour change. How can this be achieved. Should it be through formal education or civic education.

Secondly, there was the issue of the role of the private sector in Urban Sanitation especially from Mr. Shaba, Ben. The role of the private sector is important if we set them in the larger economic policy context. Current policies are implemented within the global economic policies of privatization, deregulation, downsizing the role of government. The major questions are whether these policies are helping us. can we manage to achieve urban sanitation within thses policies.

Thirdly, there was the issue of the role of the town and city authorities in urban sanitation. There is agreement that the authorities are failing to keep our cities clean. Several suggestion have been put forward.

There is an increasing recognition that conventional approaches usually involve solutions that are centralised, bureaucratic and ignore the potential contribution of the informal sector. Can we not explore the role informal sector can play in the management of solid waste. In Bolivia, India and Egpt for example, 30-50% waste management is done by informal sector. How can that be made possible in Malawi?, Lets explore whether our polices can support that? What about the legal aspects of this shift?

Again, how can sanitations issues be decentralised into suburbans. This is imp;ortant in meeting the needs of low-income areas.

What new ideas outside the box can we explore. Is there need to overwhloe the system for managing waste. Are the methods effective? do we still need those type of car for carrying waste? Can we not come up with local technology?

 
Ndilandireni ku Maknet. Ine ndikuwona ngati vuto lalikulu ndiloti anthu sanaphunzitsidwe ubwino wa ukhondo mmatawuni ndi mmizinda mwathu.

Nthawi zambiri timawona anthu akutaya zinyalala mmisewu komanso mmisinje monga ngati wa naperi ku Blantyre. Ku Nkolokosa ndi madera ena nde muli chisimu chotayira zinyalala mu msewu. Asesa zinthu kunyumba koma kotaya kumakhala kumsewu. Tawonanso anthu akungotaya zanthochi, mapulasitiki, zamango ndizina zambiri kuchokera mma mini bus ndi mma galimoto.

Choncho kwaine ndikuwona ngati chofunika ndi kuwaphunzisa anthu mwakathithi. Ndivomerezane nawo a Chilemba kuti mdziko muno mofunika kalikiliki wa kampeni yophunzitsa za ukhondo ngati mmene nkhani ya edzi ndi HIV yakhalila. Kwaine ndikuwona ngati udindo wa ukhondo uyimbile pa Mmalawi wina aliyense.

Chaka chabwino kwa onse.

Formal and Informal Education can change things.
Sane and Ruthmoyo, implementation is easy as I already noted that it can all start from the national curriculum and goals of education. Implanting such a spirit through education will change a great deal. Our learners will start to appreciate the importance of sanitation from the grassroots. Human Rights is being incorporated into our curriculum through subjects like Social and Development Studies in schools. The same can be done with sanitation because here, I regard sanitation as a right to every citizen. Those who deliberately dispose off rubbish are in the process hindering and affecting others healthwise. The problem is that people think their actions are just minimal hence cannot cause any serious negativ eimpact on the society as a whole.
 
The right to education, the right to health and other rights have a bearing on sanitation. Read the newspapers and you will hear of some schools and public places being very bad in sanitation. Change can come from all corners, mine is just one longtime solution. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!! Let's make use of the abilities we have to help Malawi change for the better. It is not costly to insert a National Sanitation Goal in the curriculum.

Takulandirani mai. masukani ndithu. izi mwanena  ndi zoona. ana athu akamakula amapeza makolo  tikupanga zinthu mwachisawawa. so they just follow suit.  tikufunikadi  chiphunzitso chachikulu pa nkhani ya unkhondo.

Despite large investments in wastewater collection and treatment systems, the number of unserved urban residents [globally] continues to grow. Wastewater collection and treatment is only one part of sanitation. In addition to improved water supply and wastewater collection, improved sanitation requires that other investments also be included. Programmes aimed at changing sanitary and hygiene behaviors, such as hand-washing and proper disposal of children's waste, greatly reduce morbidity and mortality rates from hygiene-related diseases, achieving public health impacts that are more immediate, cost-effective, and more equitably spread throughout society than from the adoption of wastewater  investments alone. Experience over the last few decades has shown that, because sanitation and wastewater treatment are inextricably linked as different parts of the same water supply and sanitation cycle, returns on investments in water and sanitation together are three times higher than investments made in either one sector alone. Institutional coordination, widespread stakeholder participation and collaborative, multi-sectoral partnerships are often required to achieve the maximum benefits from these initiatives.
More at http://www.makingcitieswork.org/urbanThemes/environment/sanitation

Ruth Moyo,
The issue of participation is very important as you have highlighted. It is important that we do stakeholder analysis to find out who can be included in the management of sanitation in a city or town council. Second, what strategies can promote participation. In other words, is there need to come up with a proper framework that can define stakeholders to be included. How can the private community be encouraged to participate.

What i have observed so far is the city or town council do not have enough gabbage disposal collection vehicles and man power to collect and remove gabbage out of city or town council. And the city or town council need to come up with a proper framework  and  allocate areas for refuse disposal dump in communities. And city or town council should form a task force team to enforce communities to follow proper procedure of gabbage dumping.

The issue of cleaner cities is a broad issue needing broader participation. Its an issue also to do with environment and am sure what need to be done is a policy at national level for implementation at local level. There is also a big need for massive civic education. Its so heart paining to see for example people throwing out garbage from buses, cars or even pedestrians. People don't see the need to dispose of garbage in proper places.
Then there is policy on issue like plastic bags, disposable containers, drink cans, non-returnable glass bottles etc. I am not sure if the department of environment affairs is aware of the massive damage these garbage are doing to our country. I wished some one had carried out and published a research on how these garbage are polluting our environment. Just count how many drink cans or non-returnable glass bottles that are entering this country every day and where they end up to.
Plastic carrier bags and disposable containers are a big nuisance to me personnally. I am not sure if it is difficult to come up with a policy than ban or restrict manufacture and use of these items. I would rather see a policy that bans use of plastic carrier bags and disposable containers for the paper alternatives or at least restrict use of the same by for example making it compulsory that traders use durable bags and containers and they sell them and prohibitive prices to force people to either re-use the bags and containers or avoid buying them completely.
Lastly I guess this is a topic that needs a national policy urgently.
 
 

very smart ideas
Lets remember that the city should have some regulation on this issue. Their primary strategy should be communication of the regulation and enforcement thereof. The city should take the responsibility.Leadership has to be seen.Am ready to help as a citizen of the  city.Sometimes I even struggle to locate enough bins along victoria avenue or Glyn Jones road.Areas under control of associations(like minibuses) have no performance indicator for cleanliness.It does not even occur in the minds of the leadership and supervisors. Leadership,leadership and leadership.Let not tolerate many excuses from the city council.They need monitors,scouts,rangers whatever we can call them.A disciplinary measure has to be well pronounced.Thats my recipe for changing attitudes on cleanliness.Clean the streets, have bins within short distances and Enforce the by-laws through any hard,soft or any other enabling way.

If Malawi is to attain one of the MDGs and perhaps MGDS, which is quality health to the citizens globally and national respectively, then we really need to go brainstorming, reach consesus on how we can have not only cleaner cities but clean environment in general.
As the debating has been raging on this issue for weeks now, we seem to all agree that we seriously require a multi - sectoral approach in dealing with the dire state in sanitation with all our cities in Malawi. I have one clear in example in mind. Thus, use of dust/garbage bin is not common in Malawi. I understand that would also require some kind of investment,. But just imagine the dust bins that are lined up along the street from Mchesi Sofa market going to Biwi. The bins themselves are in an awful state and a household expect the city workers to pick that into their truck. Often than not the garbages end in being spilt on the road. Therefore, we also need to emphasize that households should at least have portable dustbins.
One of the contributors mentioned the use of plastics and other non-biodegradable materials. These two are really a biggest culprit in polluting our cities. This would be minimised by among other things encourage customers using durable shopping bags that can be re - used for several shopping times. Just imagine the amount of plastic bags that we get from both national and international supermakets if I may call them that way. How many of us do carry the same bags when we aere going for another shopping? We hjust discard them inappropriately, thinking that we have other bags.
There was a talk making sure that some of the sanition issues are incorporated in our school curriculum. Well, the experts in the education sector would be better placed to add weight to that. But, I do remember in my old primary school days we used to learn more about such issues. Things like digging a dust bin outside our homes, I am not quite sure if such aspects were removed in the syllabus or what? Then if that is to happen we should emphasize the practically of such initiatives otherwise we will end up blotting the syllabus on theoretical issues.
I also like the idea raised by Bester, associations such as Minibus Association of Malawi are supposed to have in place bins were their passangers would be throwing garbage after getting of from the bus. Think of the place were people board mini buses in Lilongwe there is almost nothing in terms of bins. If would have dustbins at the minibus boarding points, main bus depot and along the streets, I am sure we will be on our way in achieving cleaner cities.

i read an article on plastic use by a certain writer on  'My Turn'  column of the Nation. i wonder if our governemnt is really committed to ban use of plastics. Plastics are one of the big culprits of environmental degredation.  anyone with a copy of the Environmenta Policy of Malawi? Maybe we could appreciate what role government is taking regarding issue of sanitation at all levels.

Dear Members,
The forum has been quite for sometime now. i know members have contributed alot on what could be done to ensure cleaner cities. ideas have ranged from civic eduaction, mainstreaming sanitation and environemntal studies in the curicula, enforcing capacity of the responsible local authorities, banning use of plastics and other nondegradable materials. is there anything that can be done?