Feaces for meals

• Broken sewer draining feaces into Lumbadzi River

Thousands of people around Lumbadzi area in Lilongwe are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases from a broken sewer system that is draining feacal matter into Lumbadzi River.

Downstream, thousands of people use the river for domestic purposes and watering plants grown along the river banks.

Spot checks by The Nation revealed that the pipes were broken in many parts and feacal matter literally flowed into the river and people’s gardens. There were also some uncovered manholes where the feacal matter flows out again into people’s gardens and the Lumbadzi River.

Lumbadzi River is a tributary of Lilongwe River which flows into Linthipe River  that flows into Lake Malawi, the country’s largest water body that sustains millions of poor people’s lives.

Some of the affected communities in Lumbadzi are Bango, Galamula, Mpanda, Chinkhuti, Kulamula, Kameza, Dzoole, Mchepa and Zela.

People who work in vegetable and sugar cane gardens are exposed to the untreated feacal matter that literally flows into their gardens from the system. Furthermore, those who buy the vegetables and the sugar cane from the affected fields are also at risk of contracting waterborne diseases.

Lumbadzi Housing Estate is directly connected to the system and has 848 houses. On the other hand, there are over 10 villages within Lumbadzi, which at some point are forced to get either water or vegetables grown along the river banks.

Fear grips residents

Fears of the residents are not coming out of nothing for it is on record that many people died in the area after dysentery broke out around 1991-1992. It is believed that the source of the outbreak was the same system which had just broken then.

One of the residents of Lumbadzi, Jentala Sandram, expressed worry over inaction by government to fix the problem.

Said Jentala: “As a concerned citizen, I want this sewer system fixed because it is seriously endangering our lives here. Come to think of it, a waterborne disease outbreak can wipe out a lot of people because we ingest the feacal matter either directly or through eating harvests from the gardens along the river banks.”

During the spot checks,  The Nation caught up with a vegetable seller at Lumbadzi Bridge who was drawing water from the river to clean her vegetables. The trader, Dorica Sinthani, said the river is a regular source of water in the area,  especially when water board taps run dry.

Said Sinthani: “There are also times when there are too many people at the water kiosk so much that one would opt to go to draw water in the river,  especially when that water is going to be used for washing clothes and dishes at home, not for cooking.”

Blame game

Residents of Lumbadzi believe that the broken sewer system belongs to Airport Development Ltd (ADL), managers of the estate and Kamuzu International Airport (KIA).

However, ADL chief executive officer Rodrick Chattaika disowned the system, saying the airport has a stand-alone sewer system which is up and running.

He said the broken sewer system is managed by Lilongwe City Council (LCC).

Chattaika, however, did not dismiss the fact that the sewer system is in need of serious repairing, adding that ADL once contacted the council to have it fixed.

Said Chattaika: “In 2008/2009, we contacted the council and they said they needed about K100 million to have the sewer repaired and we paid our city rates arrears which we owed the council to partly contribute to the repair project. To our surprise, however, the project has not taken off to date.”

But LCC, while acknowledging that the sewer system is under its jurisdiction,  blamed the arrangement of having the system under the council because it solely caters for ADL houses; hence, it is supposed to be part of ADL responsibility.

However, LCC chief executive officer Richard Hara said the council will fix the system regardless of ADL’s unwillingness to play its role.

According to Hara, funds amounting to K60 million have been secured from government under Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF).

Said Hara: “It was unfortunate that the sewer system in question was considered part of Lilongwe City Council because, to begin with, it was constructed as part of Kamuzu International Airport and also it caters for houses of Lumbadzi Housing Estate, which is an ADL housing estate.

“However, this financial year we have received K10 million which we are going to use to buy some materials and in the next financial year we have also [budgeted] K50 million for the project.”

Executive director for the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR),  Timothy Mtambo, has described the situation as sad and wondered why government is playing with the lives of people.

Said Mtambo: “For sure, government has been so careless and irresponsible. They have no excuse on this matter because such situations are supposed to be treated as emergencies. I have information that the Lumbadzi community has been raising this and the government has not been responsive!

“Instead of using the money realised from merciless taxes we are subjected to for handling such critical basic need for the people, our leaders are leaving their people crying while they are busy enriching themselves.”

Govt acknowledges problem

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Atupele Muluzi acknowledged that rehabilitation works for almost all infrastructures to do with waste management in the country’s major cities are long overdue.

He said K1.5 billion is required to rehabilitate all waste management infrastructure in the country, including the one in Lumbadzi. Muluzi said government has sourced K900 million which it is going to use to kick start a four-year project of rehabilitating the waste management infrastructure across the country.

Bearing in mind that a major cause of pollution is inappropriate waste management habits by people, Muluzi said the project has a component of enforcement where councils and other stakeholders are expected to start enforcing by-laws of good waste management.

He also said that at the moment government is promoting Private Public Partnership (PPP) on waste management and so far a lot of companies have expressed interest.

In November last year, the Department of Environmental Affairs closed Sunseed Oil Company in Lilongwe following revelations by The Nation that more than 150 villagers on the outskirts of Lilongwe were in grave danger of suffering and dying from various diseases after being forced to drink what an environment expert said was heavily contaminated water.

The affected villagers were in the valley area of Nafutsa Stream which flows into Lingadzi River that feeds into Lilongwe River, Linthipe River and eventually Lake Malawi. n