Lilongwe City Council reviewing by-lays to penalize litterers
The Lilongwe City Council (LCC) says it is reviewing its by-laws including those to do with waste management to penalize those who litter the streets and other public places.
LCC Spokesperson, Tamara Chafunya, disclosed this in response to Malawi News Agency (Mana) questionnaire on what the Council was doing to ensure the city was kept clean.
Mana had conducted a snap-survey which had revealed that waste in most markets of the city and other public places remained abandoned posing healthy hazards to residents, business people and all those who patronize the public places.
But while admitting the Council’s lack of capacity to manage the piling waste as regularly as the public would expect it to, Chafunya blamed some ‘unpatriotic’ citizens who throw away litter anyhow in the streets and other public places.
“Keeping the city clean is the responsibility of every individual,” said Chafunya.
“We all need to be responsible and take ownership and pride in our city. We witness pedestrians, motorists and passengers eating various foods and throwing peels, cans, cartons and plastic papers [anyhow].
“The Council has recently revisited all its by-laws including the waste management by-laws which dates back to 2002 and by reviewing the by-laws, stiffer penalties will be given to offenders.”
Chafunya said the by-laws would be fully effective once they were approved by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
The LCC spokesperson said the Council would continue conducting periodic awareness initiatives through the department of health’s Cleansing Section where vendors in specific markets would be sensitized on proper waste management and disposal.
She added that during the rainy seasons, the council’s Public Awareness Arts Group always conducted community sensitization programs through dance and drama to eradicate the possibility of poor-waste-management-related diseases.
Chafunya also bemoaned vandalism of skips (big metal bins) which the Council put in strategic places and closer to places of a lot of human activity and she described the act as “unlawful and unfortunate”.
LCC has 41 markets in total and the Council has been handicapped in the area of waste management as the equipment such as refuse collection vehicles, bins, skips and compactors have always been insufficient and costly to repair or replace, according to Chafunya.
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This is a very welcome development, however please put your house in order first. How can you punish litterers when you cant even collect wastes from homes? In our towns please put litter bins so that people can easily dispose of their trash. Look at game complex car park for example, one would hardly find a place to dispose of litter after eating for example a banana. Why don’t you put litter bins in such places?
This is good development and long overdue. Lplease our councillors do this country a favor by approving and enforcing sanitation and hygiene bylaws. It’s a capital city of an independent county and that’s where the president resides. I