Dedza pottery, haven for crafts

Dedza Pottery offers a variety of locally handicrafts.

The site is one of tourist destinations in the country that does not only offer an attractive, hand painted tableware that includes plates, mugs, jugs and teapots which are microwave safe but also bathroom-ware and floor tiles.

Using 100 percent Malawian materials, Dedza Pottery produces high quality face bricks, quarry tiles, firebricks, electrical insulators and micro concrete roofing tiles.

This attracts more than 50 foreign tourists per day between May and September each year, thereby making about K500 000 (about $1 250) per day.

“We use clay0 and glaze to make the pots and we make about 200 per day. But we can’t work without water. We use a lot of water to make the pots and without it, there is no business,” said the branch manager Kenston Chikweza.

He said the water comes from a well that was constructed at the pottery site.

He said: “We only use tapped water on other stages but otherwise we use water from the well because it is natural and does not compromise quality . Above all, we do this to protect the water for more sustainable water use”.

This is in line with this year’s World Tourism Day theme which is, Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future.

The theme mainly focuses on tourism’s significant role and contribution to worldwide water conservations efforts.

Deputy Director of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture responsible for marketing, Dyson Banda, told journalists in Lilongwe at the start of a familiarisation tour that the theme will also provide an opportunity to promote water resources while creating benefits for local populations around tourism destinations.

Dorothy Matewere, who has worked at the pottery for 20 years, said she enjoys her work as she meets different kinds of people each day that passes by who appreciate her and, therefore, she gets motivated.

The pottery shop also stocks other Malawian goods including tea and coffee, Honey Bee Balm and books of local interest.

The pottery started in 1997 a private business of Chris and Charity Stevens. In 1998 Nkhotakota Pottery, on the shores of Lake Malawi, opened using the same clay and glaze as Dedza Pottery but with different designs.

With over 80 employees, the pottery exports to Japan, Germany, Scotland and Kenya, among other countries.

The pottery has a lodge with six spacious rooms, two standard and foru superior, carefully placed in a quiet part of the building but close to the restaurant.

The lodge overlooks t with a wonderful outlook Mzengeleza Mountain in the west. The place has a a backup generator and the attractively furnished rooms have en suite tiled bathrooms, hot shower, mini bar and a secure safe.

In his official World Tourism Day 2013 message, United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Secretary Taleb Rifai, describes tourism as a powerful force capable of tackling water issues by offering effective solutions geared towards a more sustainable water future.

He said with over one billion people travelling internationally each year, tourism can be an important vehicle of raising awareness and changing behaviors.

“As one of the largest economic sectors in the world, it is the responsibility of the tourism sector to take a leadership role and ensure companies and destinations invest in adequate water management throughout the value chain. If managed sustainably, tourism can bring benefits to the national and local communities and support water preservation,” said Rifai.