By Sopani Ng’ambi & Grace Kaonga
Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM), a non-governmental organisation, says Malawians must be responsible enough to manage waste and promote environmental conservation in order for a waste-free Malawi to be possible.
WESM coordinator, George M’manga, was speaking on Friday in Mzuzu during a clean-up exercise the organisation conducted in the city’s central business area.
According to M’manga, everyone must be an integral component in conserving environment for it is not the duty of environmental stakeholders only.
“It is not the duty of government and environmental organisations only to keep Malawi clean, but everyone in the country,” M’manga said.
M’manga also advised Malawians to stop disposing thin plastics anyhow, saying it is a big threat to the environment as they take long time to decompose.
“We must make sure that these thin plastics are well disposed of, otherwise we are damaging the environment, and at the same time putting our health at risk,” he said.
“Banning the production and use of these thin plastics would be one of best ways through which Malawi can end problems brought by poor sanitation,” he added.
In his words, Mzuzu City Council Deputy Mayor, Tony Mwenitete, thanked the citizenry for taking part in the exercise, adding that the exercise was part of the council’s waste management awareness campaign.
“Thanks to everyone who managed to be part and parcel of the event. I hope they have learnt a lesson on how best they can manage waste, in particular, thin plastics,” Mwenitete said.
The clean-up exercise mainly focused on the collection of thin plastics, and was done in conjunction with Mzuzu City Council, Go-Green Malawi, Luke International, Find Your Feet, Sprodeta and Extreme Malawi.
This is an overdue initiative that some of us are yet to see come to its fruition. It should start by the government to remove the injunction on the production of thin layer plastics but of course everything is politicized… welcome to Malawi where we will continue singing this song over and over again….