Parley for open burning discussions, law making

The parliamentary health committee is pushing the citizenry and civil society organizations to start discussions around open burning of waste in the country to mitigate its impact on the environment and human health.

Chairperson of the committee Mathews Ngwale made the remarks inside the Living in Gehenna documentary series.

Currently, Malawi does not have a policy that regulate open burning of waste making it easy for people to burn waste willy-nilly in their locations.

According to Ngwale, the starting point would be the research which have been conducted by, for instance, the Malawi Liverpool Welcome Trust on the impact of smoke on children.

“We have CSO’s who are in the health sector who can look into this matter and take it to parliament and then to the government. Parliament make laws when approached by the public, researchers and civil society organizations,” said Ngwale.

Research findings conducted by environmentalists shows that open burning of waste releases harmful chemicals and particulate matter that affect human health and the environment.

Smoke from burning vegetation and organic materials contains toxic that is enough to enter the lungs and affect the respiratory system.