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| River Mudi before it flows through Blantyre |
The Rotary Club of Blantyre have decided to clean up the
river, putting together a taskforce to tackle the problem. It's an undeniably
ambitious undertaking, but something they feel is essential for the future of
their city. This involves mobilising the Blantyre Water Board, Department of
the Environment and the City Council, as well as businesses and local people
too. Encouraging collaboration, they have been meeting weekly, led by the
current president of the Rotary Club, Sundu Jere.
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| River Mudi near central market place |
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| President Sundu Jere explains the sewage treatment plans |
Sundu explained, ‘when I was a kid we could play by the
river, but not anymore. In the summer the smell from the river affects
everyone. There is a clear dividing line between where the water in the river
flows clean and then where it becomes undrinkable, a health hazard.’
The challenges are clearly huge, but Sundu is determined
that Rotary must play a big part, as nothing is being done at present. The
president has even acquired a new nickname around Blantyre, ‘Mr Mudi.’
The first phase of the project is to re-instigate the sewage treatment
plant. Built in the 1970s, the facilities at the plant haven’t worked properly
for 10 years. The city has a population of 1.2 million during the day and
735,000 at night, and currently 80% of the sewage is untreated and goes
straight into the river. When we visited the treatment plant we saw the dilapidated
state it had fallen into. The great news is that The Rotary club have secured
funding to get the plant working again and the land has recently been cleared
in preparation for this to happen. |
| Garden business in Blantyre |
Another problem the project faces is that the river flows
through an industrial area and waste from here also finds its way into the
water. Although many of the industries do have waste management activities in
place, the waste pipes that they use have been damaged or even completely removed
by vandals and people selling the pipes for scrap. So in these areas the waste
simply goes into the river. The Rotary Club has thought of a solution for this
too, they plan to replace them with concrete pipes.
Compounding the problem is the lack of any up to date environmental regulations, the penalty for polluting the river has not changed since the 70s and even if a company does get fined the fee is nominal and unlikely to prevent them from doing it again. The legislation has not been updated so there is no mechanism to discourage polluting. Again, the Rotary are tackling this problem by working with the industries and local authorities.
Compounding the problem is the lack of any up to date environmental regulations, the penalty for polluting the river has not changed since the 70s and even if a company does get fined the fee is nominal and unlikely to prevent them from doing it again. The legislation has not been updated so there is no mechanism to discourage polluting. Again, the Rotary are tackling this problem by working with the industries and local authorities.
As well as working on these kinds of ‘top down’ approaches
they have introduced some innovative ‘bottom up’ activities too. A fantastic
example of this was an initiative at the smaller tributaries along the river, which
involves allocating plots to vendors who grow shrubs and flowers. This prevents
localised rubbish dumping as the growers take ownership of their area along the
river.
These green and meticulously ordered oasis run alongside the streams and have transformed the areas from wasteland where people felt free to dump whatever they liked, to beautiful gardens and small businesses.
These green and meticulously ordered oasis run alongside the streams and have transformed the areas from wasteland where people felt free to dump whatever they liked, to beautiful gardens and small businesses.
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| Garden business along the river |
When we asked Sundu why he thought the Rotary Club needed to
become involved in such an ambitious project his answer was simple, ‘You can’t
expect someone else to clean up after you, we have to do it ourselves. There
are people ready to do the work, to clean up the river, but there is no funding
to allow them to begin. This is a project that will make life better for
everyone in Blantyre.’
There is no doubt that its going to take time, hard work and
a lot of determination. But with the Rotary Club spearheading the project there
is at least hope that cleaning up the river Mudi can and will happen. A clean
river is a vision that Rotary are making into a reality, and if they succeed it
will be an incredible legacy for the people of Blantyre.
