The making of a garbage city

The story of solid waste management in the city of Blantyre begins in a minibus on a busy Monday morning.

A middle-aged man, clad in a black suit, and sitting on the front seat of the minibus, buys a bottle of juice from mobile vendors at Chilomoni Township market and some fretters, wrapped in an old newspaper.

It must have been his breakfast. He ate until the minibus reached the Central Business District (CBD) of Blantyre. The bottle had been quenched. The fretters had been eaten. He only had an empty bottle and the old newspaper—now garbage.

As the minibus descended the Victoria Avenue—Malawi’s version of Wall Street—the middle-aged man looked through the window and threw the empty bottle and the old newspaper.

To him, that was the end of the story. Yet in that end there was a beginning of another story—the story of solid waste management in the country’s cities.

At first, the man’s story could be simplified because he only threw a bottle and old newspaper. But there are a number of Malawians like him travelling from various Townships and throwing litter anyhow.

The scale of this tendency even moved former President Bakili Muluzi, early this year, speaking on MBC-TV, where he bemoaned Malawians ‘lack of love for their country’.

“People are just taking sugarcane in the cities and throwing the waste without thinking where it will end. We are making our cities dirty and we need to change this attitude,” he said.

This increased tendency of people failing to appreciate the need to manage how they throw litter in the cities, coupled with Blantyre City officials failure to manage the disposal, has completely changed what used to define the city of Blantyre.

In the 80s and 70s, Blantyre used to be one of the cleanest cities in Africa. In fact, the city, on two occasions, was awarded for its cleanliness. Not anymore.

A stroll around the city is an encounter with garbage from all corners. Passengers carelessly throw sugar cane residues on the pavement. Empty street-pole bins stand like sickening islands amid rising reeks of litter. Plastic papers fly about as shopkeepers whirl fistfuls and cartonfuls onto the street.

In fact, Joel Malumbira, a 91 year-old who calls himself Blantyre’s elderly citizen, agrees that Blantyre was clean city.

“It was unthinkable for a person to throw litter anyhow in the city. You were haunted by conscious. You could strive to make sure that you were close to a bin so that you carefully dispose of the waste,” says Malumbira in an interview held at his house in Chilomoni.

He adds: “What I am seeing in today Blantyre is nothing but dirt and chaos. Everywhere you go, be it in the CBD or Townships there are heaps and mountains of garbage, unmanaged.

“I really weep because I shudder to imagine what will happen to the city, say, twenty years from now. I just do not know what has gone wrong with our beautiful city.”

So what could have, over the years, changed the attitude of Blantyre residents?

In an article Waste management in developing countries: A case study of Blantyre City, Malawi by researcher Takomborerwa Hove reveals that the city’s rise in urbanisation coupled with static capacity to contain its effect has greatly affected solid waste management in the city.

“Rural to urban migration in Malawi has been on an upwards trend over the last few years. The average annual increased in the urban population in Malawi during the period 2005-10 is 5.2 per cent. An increase in population means an increased in the waste generated.

“Of the 600 tonnes of solid generated in Blantyre everyday up to 75 percent is not collected due to a lack of vehicles and poor accessibility in congested low income areas. Urban collection in poor communities of solid waste is often erratic or not provided at all,” he writes.

He adds that authority’s failure has led to a free-for-all situation where people hardly see a reason to take care of the cities.

Some quarters, however, thinks that advent of democracy in 1994 also disturbed individual consciousness in dealing with waste disposal in the cities.

“The challenge we face is that people have lost the conscious to take care of their cities. They feel they are free to do anything because they have the freedom. We are even failing to police each other because we fear that they will say they have their own rights,” says Costly Chanza, director of city planning and development at Blantyre City Council (BCC).

So what needs to be done?

Hove argues that there should be purposefully built infrastructures for waste disposal where individuals and groups can dump their wastes. Advancing that government should perceive waste disposal issues to be a high priority such that polluters should be fined; Malumbira calls city councils to come up with strong city by-laws.

“We need city laws to be enforced against those who litter and tough fines like K10 000 or risk imprisonment. Even in neighbourhoods people litter everywhere including things like soiled diapers and sanitary pads.

“In some of our neighbourhoods, bins are also stolen and said to be used for brewing stuff or making pots, just like vandalised sign posts.

“Civic education is needed to teach adults that they should not vandalise things and pots, mbaula and all those items made from vandalised property should be illegal and anyone caught with them should be arrested. Democracy does not mean one can do whatever they want,” he says.