Waste management is a huge issue in Mulanje with communities disposing of their waste anywhere and everywhere without thinking about the local environment. Waste is unwanted or unusable materials whereas waste management implies the collection, transportation and disposal of garbage, sewage and other products.
Because of the environmental and health issues caused by waste, WESM ICS volunteers felt the need to do an awareness campaign on waste management at Nsanjama primary school, who had up until then been throwing their unwanted materials on the ground just outside the school fence.
One of the ICV’s, Memory Matumula talked to the students about the importance of throwing waste in bins and rubbish pits as well as how important it is to make their surroundings clean.
She stressed that if waste is not taken care of properly, problems such as disease, pollution and land degradation can occur.
The awareness campaign was a huge success and reached out to 900 students of which 555 were boys and 345 were girls.
After the campaign the volunteers dug 2 rubbish pits and donated 1 dustbin for proper management of waste. The volunteers also covered the bare land which was used as a place of previous disposal with soil.
The headmaster of the school, Chimalizeni said he really appreciated what the volunteers did on that day: “we feel really humbled because you chose to do this campaign at our school; the students have benefited and am sure they will help in keeping Malawi clean and a better place to live in.”
The headmaster then urged the volunteers to visit other schools as well for many are lacking knowledge on waste management.
Written by Jessica Lameck