user warning: Table './ikometc1_drpl1/comments' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed query: SELECT COUNT(*) FROM comments c WHERE nid = 126035 AND status = 0 in /home3/ikometc1/public_html/malawitoday.com/sites/all/modules/ctools/plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc on line 144.
user warning: Table './ikometc1_drpl1/comments' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed query: SELECT c.cid AS cid, c.pid, c.nid, c.subject, c.comment, c.format, c.timestamp, c.name, c.mail, c.homepage, u.uid, u.name AS registered_name, u.picture, u.signature, u.signature_format, u.data, c.thread, c.status, parent_user.uid as parent_uid, parent_user.data as parent_data, parent_user.name as parent_name, parent_user.picture as parent_picture FROM comments c INNER JOIN users u ON c.uid = u.uid LEFT OUTER JOIN comments parent ON c.pid = parent.cid LEFT OUTER JOIN users parent_user ON parent.uid = parent_user.uid WHERE c.nid = 126035 AND c.status = 0 ORDER BY c.thread DESC LIMIT 0, 50 in /home3/ikometc1/public_html/malawitoday.com/sites/all/modules/ctools/plugins/content_types/node_context/node_comments.inc on line 144.

articleleftcol

Lilongwe City spewing sewage into Lumbadzi River for 10 years

28 July 2012 Zodiak Radio

The Lilongwe city council has been blasted for failing to rehabilitate a sewage pipe that broke down 10 years ago at Lumbadzi.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Mrs. Catherine Gotani Hara, who visited the area on Thursday, described the development as gross negligence.

“It’s really unthinkable to learn that this problem has been there for close to a decade yet these people haven’t been making initiative to rehabilitate the broken pipe,” said Hara.

If the council had worked on the burst pipes long time ago they would have saved costs but the system now requires about K80 million to be functional, said the Minister.

Lilongwe City Council Director of Engineering Mr. Julius Tsogolani said plans to repair the broken pipe have always been there.

“For example in our budget last year we had put K39 million for the project but due to other reasons we failed to maintain it. And now we’re talking of K80 million and we have no clue where we will get it,” said Tsogolani.

The waste from the broken pipe spills over into the Lumbadzi River. The ponds used to collect the waste have also been broken completely.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Management said poses a serious health hazard to the locals.

“People use the same water which means that these people are at great risk of contracting waterborne diseases,” said the Minister.

Turning to the city’s main dump site, the minister, who visited a number of sites under her ministry urged the city authorities to come up with creative ways of managing the waste at the site before the situation really gets worse.

The twenty hectare dump site has no fence and is infested with scavengers, most of them as young as ten.