What should be a functioning commercial hub in Blantyre City, with constant clean-ups led by its out-and-out mayor Isaac Jomo Osman, increasingly reeks of burst sewer pipelines and overflowing septic tanks.
A persistent stench welcomes massive crowds to Limbe, the busiest business hotspot in Malawi’s commercial city.
Across Blantyre, raw sewage freely flows in open drains, roadsides and marketplaces.
This raises public health concerns in a city repeatedly battered by sanitation-related disease outbreaks such as choleraand polio.
By daybreak, vendors and buyers pack Limbe Market, trading fish, vegetables, food close to open sewers that run unattended.
The smelly spills attract flies that land on the crowd-pulling bites.
Limbe Market chairperson Idrisa Mussa says traders blame city authorities’ inaction to fix the broken sewers.
“This problem has been reported repeatedly, but raw sewage still poses a danger to both traders and customers,” he laments.
In surrounding markets, residents count more damaged sewer lines that pollute land, the air and water in public spaces.
Some open sewer lines lie just about 100 metres—the length of a football field—from the Blantyre City Council’s market offices in Limbe.
This exposes the proximity of the problem to the very institution responsible for maintaining sanitation in the city.
Regulars find the stench familiar that they no longer demand urgent repairs.
The Nation counted at least 40 open septic tanks and manholes in Makata Industrial Area, Ginnery Corner light industrial site, Blantyre Central Business District, Chichiri and surrounding areas where raw sewage polluting pedestrians’ tracks.
In several hotspots, damaged water pipes run alongside leaky sewer lines, raising the risk of contamination.
In 2021, the High Court of Malawi ordered Lilongwe Water Board and Lilongwe City Council to compensate Area 18 residents who spotted human excreta in water piped into their homes.
Blantye residents say the spilling of human waste worsens during the rainy season when overflows from blocked sewage systems floods the streets, markets and residential zones.
“When it rains, everything spills all over the place, soiling food zones,” says Mussa.
Poor sanitation persists as government and partners have intensified costly vaccination campaigns to make polio and cholera history.
United Nations agencies—Unicef and Wolrd Health Organization —have amplified calls for immunisation and sanitation following the discovery of poliovirus in an unvaccinated child and two sewage sites in Blantyre.
While health authorities spend big on disease prevention, Blantyre Water Board (BWB) and Blantyre City Council blame each other of neglecting liquid waste despite their legal obligations.
Sections 60 and 62 of the Public Health Act requires every local authority such as the city council to keep its area clean and take all lawful, reasonable measures to prevent or remedy any nuisance likely to be dangerous to health.
Section 62 specifically classifies foul sewers, overflowing septic tanks, wastewater discharged into public places and accumulations of sewage as public nuisances.
The Local Government Act empowers councils to establish, maintain and manage services for the collection, removal and treatment of liquid waste.
However, the Waterworks Act mandates the BWB to construct and maintain public sewer systems within their designated zones.
The laws place sanitation and sewer management at the centre of public health, but Blantyre City Council and BWB have left Blantyre’s liquid waste spilling freely for months if not years.
Mayor Osman acknowledged the problem, accusing thieves of frequently stealing covers of septic tanks and manholes.
“We plan to install CCTV cameras across the city to help identify those stealing manhole covers and we are confident this will help address the challenge,” he said.
However, BWB board chair Stanley Chirwa says the sewer systems are under the management of the council, “although there are ongoing efforts to transfer them to the water boards.”.
“The necessary regulations being put in place to facilitate the process,” he said.
Public health experts warn that exposure to untreated sewage fuels cholera, typhoid and other waterborne diseases.
To Baseflow team leader Muthi Nhlema, the real problem is not a lack of laws or technical solutions, but collapsing “institutional responsibility”.
He states: “We already know the link between poor sanitation and diseases such as cholera.
“We already have the laws. The problem is that institutions are not taking responsibility before a crisis develops.”
