BLANTYRE CITY COUNCIL
STATEMENT
DELIVERED AT
THE LAUNCH OF THE
SANITATION PROJECT
BY
THE HIS WORSHIP
MAYOR NOEL CHALAMANDA
ON
26TH MARCH 2015 The Deputy Chairperson Health Committee of the
Council Cllr Cecilia Phiri and all Councillors present Acting CEO
Dr Alfred Chanza Mr Joseph DeGabrielle and Mr Marcel Chisi
representing partners
Director of Health and Social Services and all directors
present
Chief Executive Officers present Invited Guests
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning!
I am delighted this morning to preside over the launch of this
very important project which will transform the sanitation
situation in our beautiful Blantyre City.Blantyre City Council is
today pleased to announce that it has secured $2,638,272 (about
K1.1 billion) grant from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for a
three-year sanitation project to be implemented in the City. This
success is based on good results achieved by this partnership in
managing market toilets, developing pit latrine emptying services,
and in treating fecal sludge. While important achievements, these
results are still on a small scale, and with this grant the Council
aims to scale up these services Citywide.
The project will be implemented by a partnership of three
organizations namely the Blantyre City Council, the Malawian NGO
AYISE / Blantyre Waste Concern and the Netherlands based NGO WASTE;
advisers on urban environment and development. The project involves
public and private sector participation through Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) which will ensure a win-win arrangement for the
residents of Blantyre, the private sector and the Council.
It is noted that among the challenges facing Blantyre City to be
addressed with this project are insufficient number of useable
public toilets, many private and public toilets that are full of
fecal sludge, overflowing toilets especially during the rainy
season, collected fecal sludge being dumped haphazardly into the
environment, pollution of rivers and streams and unhygienic and
unhealthy living conditions.
The project, therefore, was designed based on the Blantyre City
Councils motto Taking the City back to the people. It aims at
bringing a clean City back to a healthy population by 2018. We want
Blantyre City to achieve the following results:
a significant reduction of open defecation;
the Citys population accessing clean public toilet in markets,
bus stations and neighborhoods;
residents that have access to pit emptying services that are
safe and that offer value for money so that overflowing toilets no
longer pollute neighborhoods and rivers
a reduction in the illegal dumping of sewage by upgrading and
increasing the number of sludge treatment sites
and a reduction of sanitation related complaints to the
Council.
In the preceding years, the Council was providing sanitation
services to its population through the Department of Health and
Social Services. However, since the passing of the Sanitation
Policy and the Public Private Partnership Act, the private sector
is also involved in the provision of services to the population.
These services include the emptying of pit latrines and operation
of market toilets. This development compliments the decision by the
Council to broaden participation in service delivery by including
the private sector. The role of the Council would be to create an
environment that would encourage investments by the private sector
to provide these services as a business and to ensure that these
services are provided to a good standard.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
To achieve the clean City by 2018, the Council with its partners
would ensure that 100 public toilets have been upgraded or built
and that it has entered into Service Level Agreements with service
providers to operate and maintain these public toilets to
acceptable standards based on user fees.
The Council would also want to ensure both public toilets and
household latrines are always usable and never full of sludge, as
the City creates an enabling environment where the private sector
purchases modern, hygienic and efficient latrine emptying
equipment. It is will also upgrade five Fecal Sludge Management
(Treatment/Disposal/Reuse) sites that would be operated under
agreements with the private sector or semi-government
organizations.
The project is designed in such a way that the investments in
equipment and public toilets are shared between the Council and the
private sector. The investments by the project funds are meant
merely to kick start these investments. In fact, the Council has
already significantly increased the 2015 budget allocation to
improve sanitation in the City in order to fulfil its
obligations.
Blantyre City Council is grateful to have received such a
prestigious grant worth such amount from the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and is appealing to different stakeholders including
residents and the business community to come forward to participate
through investments as we improve sanitation in our City.
It is our hope that the implementation of this project which
will increase sanitation facilities will help all of us to change
our attitudes and mindsets especially when it comes to use and
protection of public facilities.
Once all the procedures are finalized, people would be able to
see changes on the ground.
It is now my singular honour and privilege to declare the
Sanitation Project officially launched.
I thank you for your attention.Page 5 of 5
