By Cathy Maulidi:
The Legal Affairs Committee (Pac) of Parliament has said there is a need to amend the Local Government Act of 1998, saying this is key to improved sanitation in cities.
Committee chairperson Albert Mbawala said this Tuesday after meeting Ministry of Local Government and Lilongwe City Council officials.
“The Act says if someone breaks the law on sanitation, that offender should pay K2,000 as fine. What is K2,000 today?” Mbawala said.
He also expressed concern over private sector players’ tendency to dump wastes anyhow.
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“If you look at the Act, you will see that it is archaic. We can’t be using a legal framework that was drafted in 1998 today in 2024. So many things have changed and, as such, we need to amend this Act and our call is that we should fast-track the review of this Act if we want sanity to prevail in our cities,” Mbawala said.
On his part, Director of Local Government Services in the Ministry of Local Government Douglas Mkweta said the ministry is working on having the Act amended.
“We already started reviewing the law. This is a process that started in 2015 and the Bill went to Cabinet somewhere around 2018 but it was differed for various reasons. So, the process resumed in 2020 and we have currently submitted the bill back to Cabinet for consideration,” Mkweta said.
He said the ministry also acknowledges that current fines are on the lower side, saying provisions of the Act stipulate that first-time offenders should pay K2,000 and K200 if the offender continues to break the law.
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The Act states that a person or company commits an offence if he or she operates a waste management company without a license, if a person controls the management, transportation, treatment and recycling, and safe disposal of waste without permission and discharging of municipal waste on road surface, storm water drain, river or stream or any unauthorised place.
The Ministry of Local Government says digging pit latrines, which contribute to ground water pollution, is also prohibited.
