Lilongwe City Council is set to share its sanitation drive aimed at improving management of waste water and solid waste at the Mayors and Local Authorities Forum in Kampala, Uganda this week.
The council’s mayor Esther Sagawa will make the presentation today giving insights into the status of sanitation in Lilongwe City which currently faces significant challenges in managing waste.
In an interview, she said: “We [the city council] have undertaken major reforms and investment, but the city still struggles with access to water and sanitation with many residents relying on unprotected sources for their daily water needs.”
Sagawa said initiatives such as the Integrated Waste Management Peri-Urban Assessment in Lilongwe were helping to improve access to faecal sludge and solid waste services in the capital city’s peri-urban areas.
The project, funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund, seeks to support the implementation of a circular economy model, with combined solid waste and sludge resource recovery.
The African Water and Sanitation Association International 22nd Congress started in Kampala yesterday and has drawn delegates, including 100 utilities institutions from 40 countries.
Data shows that two in three people in Malawi have access to clean water and the country loses about 1.1 percent of gross domestic product due to poor health outcomes attributed to low access to safely managed sanitation services.
Sagawa is leading the Malawi delegation to the conference being held under the theme ‘Investing in infrastructures to sustain the value chain towards safely managed sanitation for all’.
Malawi Government through the Lilongwe Water Board has been working towards addressing the challenges of access to water in Lilongwe City through increasing the number of water kiosks in low-income areas.
