Minister tells Salima District Council to manage waste

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Phiri has advised Salima District Council to put in place waste management strategies.

The minister said this on Friday in Salima when he visited one of the district’s dumping sites following a picture of garbage from Kamuzu Road which went viral on social media on Thursday afternoon.

He said waste management is one of the council’s duties; hence, the need to come up with mechanisms that will reduce waste.

“As councils, they need to create a clean friendly environment for their people by collecting and disposing of waste in designated dumping sites so that we create an enabling business environment.

“It is  worrisome to have places such as this filled with garbage,” he said.

Phiri said failure to manage waste affects human activities and leads to poor sanitation that breeds diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.

“The council should create a good waste management system such as increasing the number of collection facilities such as dust-bins as well as instil waste management behaviour in people through civic education,” he said.

Salima District Council chairperson Esther Soko said the council will do everything possible to ensure that waste is dumped on designated sites.

“I am also not happy with this development. As a council, we have already started working towards cleaning such places and we will continue doing so until our town is clean,” she said.

Soko also said the council will encourage people around Kamuzu Road and other places in the district to dump waste in designated sites.