The National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) has imposed a K40 million fine on PressCane Limited for polluting the environment near Dyeratu Trading Centre in Chikwawa District.
The ethanol-producing company, owned by the State-dominated Press Corporation, has come under fire since January 20 when heavy torrents flooded its waste ponds, with overflows fouling the air, land and water in surrounding villages.
During a visit on Saturday, The Nation saw the spill clogging gullies, streams, wells and rice paddies.
The untreated waste has scorched nearly everything in its way, including grasslands where animals graze. In these fertile alluvial fields, locals produce food crops and trees that refresh the air they inhale, but every breath now reeks of greasy by-products of molasses for producing ethanol.
Some locals reported spotting tar-like impurities—similar to PressCane’s liquid waste—in gushes from a communal borehole in January Village and taps at the receiving end of a Unicef-funded solar-powered water supply system for Dyeratu Primary School in the vicinity.
On January 26, the spillage compelled the Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (Mepa) to close PressCane factory, ordering the firm to adequately compensate the affected population, undertake structural assessments and take control measures to avoid discharging toxic waste into the environment.
Two weeks on, NWRA has ordered the profit-making subsidiary of Press Corporation to pay the fine some concerned locals described as too little, too late to offset the harm caused by the neglected damage done for nearly two decades.
In an interview yesterday, NWRA spokesperson Masozi Kasambala said he could neither confirm nor deny the penalty imposed on the polluting firm.
“I cannot say anything about it until we issue a statement about that,” he said in a veiled validation of our findings.
However, PressCane chief executive officer Bryson Mkomaanthu confirmed being informed of the sanctions imposed by NWRA.
“We have received a letter, but we are yet to respond. However, we have some observations which the regulator needs to clarify. Until then, we cannot comment on the matter. Leave us to respond when we engage the regulator,” he said in an interview with The Nation, but did not disclose the sticky points.
Mkomaanthu said the ethanol company has since hired a consultant to assess the waste management structures, as ordered by Mepa.
He indicated that “preliminary remedial works are underway” until the consultant gives him a report “on Monday or by Friday”.
However, community activist Lovemore Jambo said the fine is “too little to halt industrial pollution and compensate for the damage caused for nearly two decades”.
In an interview, he stated: “Water is life, but our priceless lives have been under attack for a long time. Unfortunately, the fine imposed by the State agency is just a small fraction of the billions PressCane makes annually.
“I don’t know how the money will benefit the people who have suffered the impacts of water, air and land pollution for a long time, but a stiffer penalty would help prevent a repeat of what we have experienced since 2005 and deter other companies from polluting willy-nilly.”
Last month, the then Minister of Natural Resources Alfred Gangata travelled to Chikwawa District to appreciate the impact of the scandal.
Meanwhile, The Nation has asked NWRA, Mepa and Malawi Bureau of Standards for the fine details of their findings that compelled them to penalise PressCane, detailing the life-threatening substances detected, why surrounding communities should be concerned and information people can use to mitigate the damage.
