Street Vending & Environment

(this article appeared in the Sunday Times)

Of vending and effects on our environment
by Hastings Maloya

In the just-ended week, the government started flushing vendors out of the streets in urban centers. The move has received mixed reactions from different people with others supporting the it while others condemning it depending on one’s belief and understanding. Environmental journalist HASTINGS MALOYA ponders on how street vending in our cities and towns damaged the environment and the anticipation for an improvement when vendors shall no longer be on the streets.

About twelve years ago, when one lived in the rural areas, visiting cities like Blantyre and Lilongwe was a marvel. On the eve of a trip to the city, one would spend a sleepless night, not out of fear but eagerness to get into a different environment. It could be because of the nice buildings that one would see or the number of vehicles that the eyes would feast on, which were purely a dream in the village.

But apart from the infrastructures, simply Malawian cities were a beauty, so clean that walking along the streets was really a good thing. There were designated places where one would litter and refuse collection was order of the day. With wonderful vegetation in the city’s river banks that made the towns look green and beautiful, it was everybody’s wish to stay in town.

As years went by, the situation slowly changed, the beauty dramatically lost and the cleanliness completely gone. Today, litter is everywhere, and surely an eyesore. The available rivers in our cities that people used to be proud of, now have no water and are a source of pungent smells following piles of waste, which is quite hazardous to the health of humans as well as plants and animals.

There could be many causes to this change and different people would give different reasons.

One reason had been the coming in of street vending. Though it would be difficult to tell how vending slowly became part of our living in cities, it must be acknowledged that this trend led to unplanned expanded settlements. Many people trekked from the rural areas to settle in towns and cities with a belief that an available occupation was on the street.

The streets were therefore full of people and activities, which resulted in lack of proper sanitation facilities and overcrowded conditions. This also posed a high risk of communicable diseases and caused additional pressure on management of waste. Our towns and cities today are no longer a pleasant sight – yes they are full of waste. This is not only bad to our health but to our environment too. We have noted people turning walls of buildings and tree trunks into toilets.

Nature of business and places of operation of such businesses has always been a very big problem. For example how could we allow the sell of alcohol at a hospital premises? Packaging of the products sold by most vendors has also been another cause of the pathetic situation that our cities are in today. We have noticed garbage piling up on road sides, footpaths and vacant land, especially along river banks. Sometimes we have only complained within ourselves while the situation continued to deteriorate.

However, all is not lost yet.

The move by the government to remove vendors from the streets should be applauded and looked at as stock taking. This should not be apolitical issue but a developmental one. Let us accept that by accepting vending in the streets of our cities, we did much damage to our environment and in the process we lost the pride of having beautiful towns and cities. We irresponsibly turned our towns and cities into dumping grounds.

As observed by the Minister of Rural Development, George Chaponda, the removal of the vendors must be seen as good for Malawi. It is now high time for people in responsible positions in our cities and towns to measure their performance against the environmental situation of their responsible towns and cities. Waste collection must be intensified. Without vendors in the streets, it should now be a shame for responsible officers in our town and city assemblies if the situation is not reversed. Meanwhile it is the hope of every Malawian that our cities and towns will once again look beautiful and that we will avoid communicable diseases.

It only takes us to acknowledge that we are the custodians of places that we live in and it is our responsibility to care for our environment.