29/07/2026
DID YOU KNOW?
A clean and healthy Malawi begins right at our doorsteps.
While floods, droughts and other natural disasters make headlines each year, the quiet crisis of poor waste disposal is growing just as fast. Reports, including a World Bank report from March, often point to gaps at city, district and national levels — like limited collection services and little separation of waste. But every community is made up of households. That means every home plays a part, for better or worse, in how waste is handled.
Town assemblies and markets have taken good steps forward with bins and large waste containers. Yet the informal neighborhoods where most of us live have been overlooked. Ironically, the household is where habits start.
Too many homes still toss rubbish carelessly around their yards, and that same habit travels with people to workplaces, markets and city streets. Even where public sanitation exists, it is undone by behaviors carried from home — often out of ignorance, not malice, and without understanding how dirty environments spread disease.
There is no healthy nation without healthy homes.
What we need now is grassroots awareness: more civic education, radio programs that reach families, rules that require shops to provide bins, and teaching that drains, rivers and streets are not dumping sites. These simple changes could go a long way in cutting risks like cholera, especially during the dry season when waste piles up.
In the end, the cleanliness of the place we live mirrors who we are, and it shapes the quality of life we will have in the years ahead.
In our Mother language we say " Kupewa kuposa Kuchiza", Prevention is better than cure let's commit to a healthy Environment.
Written By: Blessings Bemeyani
Photo Credit: Tadala Shanil Hau