Factories to face environmental audit
Government says it will start undertaking a national environmental audit on how factories and some major businesses discharge their waste to avert environmental disasters in Malawi.
The exercise is also meant to punish those who endanger people by dumping their waste carelessly.
Dr. Aloysious Kamperewera, director of environmental affairs in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mines, said this in reaction to the story broken by The Nation recently.
The story exposed how poor communities near Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, have endured water pollution woes and reduced economic activities for over a year because of two factories with poor waste management systems—Sunseed Oil Company Limited and its sister firm, Central Poultry Farm.
A day after The Nation exposed one of the worst environmental horror stories in Malawi; the Department of Environmental Affairs closed Sunseed Oil and fined Central Poultry for endangering communities around it.
Said Kamperewera: “When we learned about this big problem from you [The Nation], we promptly dispatched our environmental officers and inspectors, who teamed up with health and water officials. We took samples of the polluted water… and a full report on how we should move, going forward, will be released in the near future.
“But since such shocking waste mismanagement incidents are occurring frequently these days, our environmental experts and officials will work with other key players—such as the Water Resources Board, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development—to carry out an environmental audit [nationwide].”
He said the audit will scrutinise the entire production, waste management and disposal chain of every organisation or business concern.
Kamperewera said if factory owners and businesses stuck to what they initially agreed under the Environment Management Act when they set up businesses, the risk of environmental disasters would be greatly minimised, as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) plan and Environmental Safeguards tend to cancel out likely operational complications.
