Revive clean-up campaign—environmental activists
Environmental activists have expressed disappointment with the dying momentum of the national clean-up campaign meant to promote proper waste management in the country and have called for its revival.
Launched with pomp and hype by President Lazarus Chakwera in July 2020, the campaign sought to achieve good hygienic practices among Malawians by encouraging citizens to sweep and clean their homes, workplaces and other community surroundings every second Friday of a month.
However, both Movement for Environmental Action interim president Mathews Malata and Civil Society Network on Climate Change National Coordinator Julius Ngoma cited lack of proper guidelines, coordination, resources and sustainability plan as the major challenges in the implementation of the campaign.
According to Malata, as stakeholders, they supported the initiative which he said could have been part of the efforts in the fight against the raging cholera outbreak.
However, he said there are so many structural challenges and institutional boundaries that fizzled out the campaign.
Malata said: “People could clean up an area, but at the end of the day, there were no trucks to carry the garbage to the dumping site.
“There was also a need for coordination among the masses, stakeholders and local government authorities. Awareness and ownership by the people is also key.”
Ngoma agreed with Malata’s sentiments, saying it is not too late to go back to the drawing board and rebuild the momentum, by among others, re-launching the campaign with a clear strategy, and mobilising resources for the implementation.
He said: “We received and supported the initiative as we thought it will help resolve some of the challenges such as waste management and reduction of emission of greenhouse gasses.
“However, there was a lack of sustainability and it was highly politicized. Let’s take politics out of the initiative and re-launch at district level so that councils take the lead.”
But Ministry of Local Government spokesperson Anjoya Mwanza insisted that the exercise has been taking place both at national and local levels.
“Ministries, departments and agencies, local authorities and community members need to be reminded every month to carry out the activity,” she said.
Mwanza further said the country requires policy, budgetary and moral support from the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, the Department of Environmental Affairs, the National Assembly, through the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Climate Change as well as from the public to help address constraints in human resources as well as equipment required for waste management.
