The Dowa District Council on Friday held the launch of the National Clean –up Day Initiative under the theme; A clean Environment; My Right, My Responsibility.”
The Day is speaking of the peoples’ right to a clean and healthy environment as well as their responsibility to safeguard the right by taking environmentally responsible behavior at individual, institutional, and community levels.
Speaking during the District’s launch of the Clean –up Day Initiative held at Mponela community ground on Friday, Guest of honour at the function, Deputy Chairperson of Legal Affairs committee of Parliament, Peter Dimba called upon people of Mponela and Dowa to be re–oriented to practice good environmental management through advocacy, training, education and awareness.
Dimba, who is also Member of Parliament for Lilongwe South constituency said the country’s educational institutions are invited to scale up environmental awareness programs in schools and institutions of higher learning on the importance of respecting the environment and living harmony with nature.
He said in towns, major trading centres and market centres , it is alarming to learn that by average, Malawi generates an estimated 0.5 Kgs per capita per day of waste , which translates into 633 fifteen –tone lorries of waste being produced every day, saying this is a wake –up call for all meaning Malawians to take ownership of the environment surrounding them.
“While the limited waste management failures and services may be major contributing factors, peoples’ negative attitude towards the environment plays a pivotal role, they dispose waste in un designated places,” said Dimba.
The Parliamentarian assured the people of Mponela and Dowa that the current Administration led by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera who launched the National Clean–up Day Initiative in Lilongwe, is keen to create a new Malawi, a Malawi for all, by making sure that people are keeping their surroundings clean and healthy.
On thin plastics, Hon. Dimba urged the people of Mponela and Dowa to popularize the use of alternative environmentally friendly career bags, calling upon the Transport sector to play its part in deterring motorists from throwing waste outside moving vehicles on the road.
In his remarks, Dowa District Council’s Chairperson, Councilor Martin Luka Phiri, called for a total mindset change of the people of Mponela and Dowa to make sure that the environment is kept clean and healthy, saying that the council is committed to see to it that people are living in a clean and healthy environment.
Luka said the council will conduct a routine program to visit all the trading centres across the district to make sure that they are clean and that people are adopting the Clean –up Initiative as a habit so that each and every person learn from it to keep the surroundings clean and healthy.
Speaking earlier, Inkosi Mponela called on the council to employ more additional staff in the markets and procuring more dust bins for dumping solid wastes and a refuse collection vehicle to carry the wastes to the dumping site for the National Clean –up Day initiative to be a success in the district
