Blantyre City Council (BCC) has said it will embark on an on-going pollution monitoring exercise as one way of reversing deterioration of the city’s environmental system.
The exercise will specifically target trade effluent from all industries in the city and the council has since urged companies and institutions to cooperate with its pollution control staff as the exercise will significantly contribute to the council’s efforts of ensuring that Blantyre city is environmentally safe and clean.
BCC acting chief executive officer Alfred Chanza, in a statement released on Monday, said the monitoring exercise will be conducted to control the levels of pollution from various companies/institutions/industries and hold those responsible for the emerging challenges accountable.
He said the exercise is also in pursuance of the Public Health Act Sections 60 and 61 and the Second Schedule of the Local Government Act paragraph 2 (6).
Said Chanza: “Therefore, all companies/institutions/industries are being informed that they should not be surprised when they see our staff identified by our IDs, in their premises asking to undertake thorough inspection of the activities being carried out by the company/institution as this will help identify the sort of trade effluent to be closely monitored.”
However, responding to BCC’s statement, environmentalist Sunduzwayo Jere wondered how council could monitor when they cannot enforce by-laws on offenders.
Said Jere: “First and foremost they should have worked on the hotspots to make sure they are no longer leakages into Mudi and Naperi rivers, before monitoring.
The councils’ public relations manager, Anthony Kasunda, confirmed that the council knows some of the culprits and that the council’s by-laws would be enforced.
