Clean Malawi, but whose responsibility is it?

I have been blasted left and right for not posting the Friday update last week. Napepe achakulungwa. I got tied up with things. Anyway. That is just an excuse but here I am, making up for my sins.

Being on holiday, I had to go home and to be in "Malawi-proper". I am not trying to boast about the place I spend much of my time at (the College of Medicine) but I think that place takes a person away from the realities in our country. I mean, there are no blackouts that side. How can that be the real Malawi?

There has been one striking difference between the inside of COM and the outside that I have noticed now than ever before and that is about the level of cleanliness.

In as much as the city of Blantyre has improved on the looks litterwise, I still think we have a long way to go. It is not strange to see pieces of paper, plastics and bottles on the streets. Things that are obviously not supposed to be there. The other thing you will not expect to find, but will find is that expensive take away box. The sort of box you get from Malawi Sun Hotel. It will be just on the roadside, a car window throw away from the side of the road. I until now get it as to why someone in their right mind (and we are talking about someone who can manage an expensive take away outlet here) would choose to toss a box over the window anywhere in the middle of the city's central business district (I studied some town planning too).

In the peripheries of the city there is this bad habit of throwing all the household refuse in the rivers or on riversides, and not only is this going unpunished, but I might be the first person speaking about it which means that people are not. I am told we have organizations that advocate for care of the environment, though. How ironic!

That is the problem at hand, and again it is man made. As per tradition, we need to find someone to blame, but before we go to Noel Chalamanda and his council or whoever is managing councils elsewhere (I don't think the problem is limited to Blantyre), I think we all have a part in this mess.

In the first place, our cities are plagued by the intolerable habit of throwing litter everywhere. The unfortunate part about this is that this seems to be done by everyone including the very people we consider educated and smart. For some reason, we Malawians like eating but we do not like to sit down for it, so when we get whatever food in out plastic bags or lunch boxes, the pack goes where the food ends. That is the same with remains of fruit and chimanga chootcha we eat in town.

When it comes to garbage from the homes, the river seems to be the conventional place for emptying bins in the townships. Some who find the river too far have gone to the extent of throwing litter on dirt roads, claiming to be covering potholes.

While acknowledging that we have been irresponsible with the way we manage our waste at individual and household level, our city councils have not done a good job in collecting refuse. Most of the townships do not have points where waste can be collected. This gives me a feeling that somehow as a nation we are not serious about waste management and we might keep having this problem of people throwing their waste in places where waste is not supposed to be found.

The whole issue of household waste management might be hard to address at Richie Online level, but I think we can sort out this issue of littering everywhere with majumbo a chips and take away boxes. We actually do not need a first lady to tell us these things. We just need to change our mindsets to the "bin it, don't toss it" mode. I don't think it is too much to ask for to everyone who has been bright enough to read this article. You probably should share it with a couple of friends before we make T-shirts for the "Bin it, don't toss it" campaign. It could be funded, right?

To sum it up, we have been talking of tourism and all, but that cannot work if we keep having dirty cities and district centers. I am only focusing on the looks of our towns here and I don't have to talk about the diseases that can be avoided if we were to avoid some of the malpractices we have always been into.

In short...

Don't litter anywhere and throw your household waste at the best place possible to avoid causing harm to others.

This whole thing of just throwing half consumed mango seeds and cassava peels along Victoria Avenue has to stop. What is it with us and eating because we have seen food while walking in town, anyway?

Zichepe ndipo zitheretu. Let us keep our cities and residences clean.

Merry Christmas!