Blantyre residents will always remember November 1, 2014, a day when the Keep Blantyre Clean and Green campaign was launched. Graced by the Mayor Councillor Noel Chalamanda and presided over by the First Lady Madam Getrude Mutharika during the Mayor’s Ball, Keep Blantyre Clean and Green is an initiative with the vision of turning Blantyre into one of the greenest and cleanest cities.

Soon after the being elected Mayor of Blantyre City, Councillor Chalamanda selected a 23 member committee to oversee the progress of the initiative. The committee was mandated to mobilize resources for the campaign and organize the Mayors Ball event on the day of the launch.

At least eight months have gone since the launch and the campaign and the fruits have started showing. The greener part of the campaign has been successful due to the commitment shown by stakeholders in the city who partnered Blantyre City Council in planting trees during the rainy season.

The companies which include; Ned bank, Old Mutual, Toyota Malawi, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), Airtel Malawi, Telecom Networks Malawi (TNM), Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) and Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) showed commitment to the City they love by planting over 30 000 trees to dress the bare hills of Nyambadwe, Mpingwe and Bangwe.

Despite returning the natural look that the city once had, the planted trees will help in boosting the tourism and trade industry, since tourists and potential investors will be attracted to invest and visit the city thereby promoting the country’s socioeconomic development.

Also natural disasters which include floods will be history and the famous Mudi and Nasolo rivers will have a lot of water now that trees which are a source of water for rivers have been planted.

On the clean part, the streets of Blantyre have bins which were once scarce. Almost 50 bins worth K10million were provided and placed by Petroleum Importers Limited in support of Keep Blantyre Clean campaign.

Some of the contributing companies towards a Clean Blantyre initiative include NBS Bank, Malawi Savings Bank, Larfage Cement Company, Phalombe Hardware, Puma Malawi Ltd, Candlex Limited, Rab Processors Ltd, FDH Holdings, CDH Bank and Malswitch.

Making the city clean has been embraced by the youth as well as demonstrated by the enthusiasm from students who have come forward to support the campaign by engaging in sweeping exercises.

The Malawi Polytechnic Business Communication students on April 16, 2015 swept the area between Illovo and Midima roundabouts in Limbe. By doing the exercise, the students demonstrated the role of communicators in the country which is to communicate and educate people on the importance of living in a clean and healthy environment.

Through the City Council’s strategy of directly involving residents and stakeholders into the Keep Blantyre Clean and Green campaign, and the commitment residents and stakeholders have to the campaign, almost all roundabouts in the city have been adopted by the corporate citizens.

The roundabout adopters will have the responsibility of taking care of them together with the surrounding 50 meter stretch of the roads leading to the round-about including verges and islands and in exchange granted the right to erect and display advertisements as in line with their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Blantyre City Council.

Companies who have signed MOUs with the Council on adoption of roundabouts include; Sunbird Tourism Limited (Kameza and Chichiri), BATA (Kwacha and Maselema), Charter Insurance Malawi Limited (Clock Tower and Larhgi Kurji), Chambo Fisheries (Midima).

The campaign gives a lot of hope and expectations to Blantyre residents’ as the broken sewer system which causes the bad smell in Mudi and Nasolo rivers is to be rehabilitated. With the help of stakeholders, Blantyre city council has pipes, reinforcement bars, bricks, sand, quarry stones, cement, planks and nails for the exercise of Mudi and Nasolo rivers clean up.

Remember to Keep Blantyre Clean and Green. It starts with you!