In November 2014, Environmental Affairs Department temporarily sealed Sun Seed Oil Company Limited in Lilongwe and Central Poultry farm for endangering communities in Lilongwe and fined them K1 million each.
However , the sisters companies accused of discharging their waste into the neighboring crop fields and streams swiftly paid the fines and continued their operations.
Almost six years on, in December 2019, some 14 families in Gongweya told The Nation they had been bearing the brunt of reckless liquid waste. foul smell and hordes of flies from a Sun Seed Oil factory since 2013.
Village head Gongweya said pollution of soil, land and water only stopped in 2014 when the environmental protectors briefly closed the company, which rears chicken, mill chicken feed and produce cooking, EAD also ordered the polluters to pay K2 million.
There are similar stories in Blantyre city Council (BCC), which has fined several companies, including Castel Malawi Limited, Suncrest Creameries Limited, Hua Feng Company, Universal Industries, African Cattle Ranch and Kelfoods Limited for polluting.
Last week, Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo visited the council to appreciate challenges in the management of industrial waste which puts human health at risk.
Flavius Kamwana, a chemist at the council, said companies sealed for violations of environmental laws reopen shortly after paying the fine because the penalty remains lower than the profits they make while polluting soil, water and air.
The chemist said polluters mostly get away with crimes and keep breaking environmental laws because they easily pay their way out of the noose.
Said Kamwana: ”The fines stipulated in the Environmental Management Act range from K1 million to K5 million, depending on the gravity of the damage caused to people and the environment.
This is petty cash to some of the companies which makes millions daily. They easily pay the fines and continue with their operations like nothing happened.
Tembo said the existing laws do not deter, but aide offenders who do not feel the pitch of the law. The minister is worried that many communities nationwide silently bear the brunt of reckless disposal of industrial waste.
she asked all city councils ”to speak with one voice” on how outdated environmental management laws hinder their conservation efforts and what needs to happen to protect communities along polluted rivers.
Said Tembo: ”Sometimes it is good for people to suggest solutions to the problems faced so that together we can work on making those suggestions attainable. i believe that a law should be there to promote order, not to make things worse,” she says.
Tembo promised to fast track the implementation of recommendations of the councils frustrated by lax polluter-pays legislation.
Village head Kameza where residents were recent victims of unlawful waste disposal into Chirimba river by Capital Oil Refining Industries Limited, said it is high time environment protectors started holding polluters and councils to account.
”It high time city councils became tough on companies that put our lives at risk. For a long time people in my village as well as Mwachande, Mdala. M’buka villages have been using contaminated water for bathing, washing clothes and watering gardens,” he said.
The Environmental Management Act of 2017 requires all industrial firms to purify liquid waste and remove all hazardous chemicals before discharging wastewater into natural waterways.
Source: The Nation_October 1, 2020_By Mercy Malikwa-News Analyst