Managing population explosion
I have seen a lot of commentary about Malawi at 50 or 51 and now we shall be calling it 52. Some will post pictures of grass-thatched school blocks to show the wasted years. Pictures of long lines in banks or clients literally dosing are quite common.
Similarly, power cuts or water shortages for a couple of days are all manners in which we satirise the last 50 years. The fact that we still refer a lot medical cases beyond the border just one of the many scenarios Malawians express opinions with some sense of humour.
Our population has grown tremendously to 17 million yet our country size is so small. Zambia is much bigger by a factor of five yet has the same number of people. Whether you want to believe the numbers, the evidence is there. Our cities are crowded, so are our hospitals. Universities are not admitting most qualified students. Diploma mills are flourishing as kinds try their luck to get a tertiary qualification. Tobacco export earnings are not enough to pay for a fuel bill unlike the past.
So many things to talk about. Can we manage this explosion and get our infrastructure such as roads, banks, water, electricity, housing and other public services cope? We have tough choices ahead and must start to happen now and beyond the horizon of any presidential term.
The 50 years of independence have been a learning curve and like many others also draw some positives. Whether positives outweigh negatives is a matter of opinion but the essence is how the short falls can be fixed to create a different Malawi by 2069. You got me right. Most of us won’t be there but since countries do not only outlive citizens, but are actually bigger than them.
Such is the folly of term limits and the notion that once governments change so do programmes. Lessons abound but the reality is there for all of us to see. It should be the starting point of framing a Malawi at 100. This is a Malawi that in some document called Vision 2020, shelved somewhere, was set to achieve middle income status, five years from today.
Bring matters to the planning table, a Malawi of the next years must boldly deal with threats that we seem to pay little attention. We remain a highly populated country and there is a silent land grab that is forcing the most vulnerable into further deep poverty. We must begin to ruthlessly deal with urban planning to make full use of land and space. The site of Lilongwe old town and Limbe are some examples of how land is misused. Property developers are still being allowed to build a single story commercial property. These are some of the many things we have to deal with rapid urbanisation to ensure investors have enough space to let and run their businesses.
Dealing with a rapidly growing population is one the cardinal foundations in which the Malawi at 100 will be judged. A rapidly rising population will need more food and, hence more land. It will need more health facilities and the health system will need to cope with it. An increasing demand of health services does not only mean a huge health budget but an education budget to training more health workers like doctors, nurses and midwives and so on. It also means that training institutions must expand their capacity and introduce more programmes than they do at the moment.
It is not just the social services like health and education that will need to rise but energy and housing. It could be the right time to set a framework that ensures many Malawians, especially in the rural areas are connected to the national grid. Frameworks that deliberately increase generating capacity of electricity more than we need should be a guiding philosophy.
A population threat is real and has many consequences on sustainable growth. Sustainable growth also entails that our environment is protected to minimise natural calamities. Demand for housing might as well mean destruction of the environment through cutting of trees for timber or bricks. We got to think through all this. It might also mean demand for more fuel wood if electricity is not accessible to many or it is unreliable.
The list looks endless but this is how all great countries have developed themselves. They have clearly mapped their visions; have put their countries above anything. Often they ignore planning based on a presidential term.
With sobriety, they often manage current situations with the interest of the country in the long-term. Currently, we are operating in a tight budget but it should never remove any leverage in how we negotiate use of our natural resources.
Malawi of the next 50 years will need more resources to train our young citizens and provide health, energy and housing to create a vibrant economy. It is imperative that any investor coming to extract our natural resources pay a fair share of taxes, including fees for destroying our environment. Short-term opportunism by some of foreign investors out of our tight budget must be dealt with forcefully. It is a determinant in how this country we call home will look like 50 years from now.
