Walking for A clean Mudi

It was around 6 of last Saturday morning when over 60 nature enthusiasts started the walk from the Sunnyside Bridge in Blantyre. Here was a multidimensional six-kilometre trail along the Mudi River to Makata, close to the river source at Mudi Dam.

While some walked in the cool weather along the banks of the river, others were running around town but they all joined together and returned to Sunnyside via the Kamuzu Highway through the central business district.

It was also multidimensional in that it was about protection of the environment, promotion of recycling, keeping fit, a time for adventure and use of art in environmental protection. Not forgetting socialisation.

Starting with an exercise led by Malawi Defence Force soldier Austin Ndolo, who last year joined a Malawian team to summit the Kilimanjaro Mountain, the nature trail was organised by Art Malawi and other partners to raise awareness on conservation of the river, which has known massive pollution.

“Apart from raising awareness on the importance of keeping the river clean, this was also a time for participants to keep fit. While some walked, others ran and jogged. Of course, many more made new friends, socialization is important,” he said.

Art Malawi director Manota Mphande said the run was their launch of the Mudi River Clean up Project 2023.

“It’s part of our awareness campaign, promoting waste management and getting our stakeholders to understand what we do when we collect waste. We also have new partners in the Mudi River Project, and we wanted them to appreciate what we have been doing and what we intend to do as a collective,” he said.

According to him, progress is being made in cleaning up the river, with more people being aware of their goals.

“Currently, we have focused on fabrics cycling into usable school bags that we distribute to primary school children,” he added.

Participating in the run were three deaf fashion designers Wyness Chirwa, Faith Banda and Happiness Kalumbi, from Tikonze Apapa, an organisation which runs the Titchene project. They transform the cloth waste collected from the river into bags that are distributed in primary schools.

According to the organisation’s executive director Katiana La France they have been involved in the recycling of waste since September last year.

“Not only is it beneficial for the children who get backpacks, it is also our wayof enhancing inclusion for the fashion designers with a hearing defect. Society mostly sidelines them for their invisible disability. They have talent which we are promoting,” she said.

The organisations public relations officer Ganizani Killowe said removing trash from the river to recycle it for reuse is a way of easing pressures on electricity generation.

“The run signified that there is power in unity to restore the environment for a brighter future. We are making new things from old stuff. It is also high time people realised that people with disabilities should not be locked up, they must be given a chance,” he said.

Last year, they made 250 bags with funding from the French Embassy in South Africa.

Mphande was also upbeat that musicians Hyphen, Leslie Moyo and Mighty Virus and producer Pro Pee joined the run as they would bring a voice on the importance of keeping the river clean. In separate interviews, the artists said they would bring awareness using their art.

“It is exciting to be part of this. As an artist, I have seen with my eyes the course of this river. I have known how important it is to take care of it and play a part in preserving it,” said Leslie.

Hyphen agreed. “As an artist, I participated in the campaign to see for myself the damage to the river. It is not something we should take lightly. While clean water can give life, contaminated water can end it. It’s that serious, we would like to make use of our talent to get these messages across,” he said.

On his part, Mighty Virus said: “We have been hearing about how important it is to take care of nature and it wasn’t sounding real. As an artist and a citizen, I have realised that we have a huge role to play after seeing how dirty the river is.”

In 2022 the Clean Up Mudi won the Water Warriors Award from the Water Witness Malawi.

For Kondwani Chamwala, national coordinator of Team Adventure, the walk brought to light a nature trail adventurers can use.

“This is a route people can use for adventure. We walked just after Tropical Cyclone Freddy and the water was clean. There was no stench that is synonymous with the river as companies and individuals continue polluting it. By having more and more of these walks, we would appreciate who is polluting the river,” he said.

According to Idrissa Mkwanda, Blantyre City coordinator of the Waste Advisers the run was important as they have been conducting waste management awareness campaigns in the city mainly focusing on waste separation.

“We want people to know that they can make money out of waste hence we promote circular economy of waste management. We promote waste separation into organic and inorganic and we are using the organic waste to produce compost manure which is very good,” he said.

That, he added, helps, with the current high prices of fertilizer and environmental degradation as a result of use of chemical fertilizers.

“The run and walk was mostly on the banks of the river, hence people were able to see the damage waste is causing in our environment especially polluting the rivers,” said Mkwanda.

Blantyre City chief executive officer Dennis Chinseu hailed the organizers as it brought to light the plight of the river and efforts in place to keep it clean.