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MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE
A fortnightly update of news from Malawi
Edition # 31 23 June 1997
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists in Malawi and brings you the news from their point of view. It is assembled and edited in Denmark by South Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement, publishers of i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine on Southern Africa.
The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided by our established network of journalists in Southern Africa. We also distribute ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE, MOZAMBIQUE NEWS ONLINE and TANZANIA NEWS ONLINE and these will be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual news updates covering other Southern African countries,.
MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is brought to you by a co-operation between South Africa Contact and Inform, the leading alternative information network in Denmark.
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In this edition:
Feature:BIO-GAS SOLUTION FOR MALAWI
Stories:
1. AMERICAN GOVT FUNDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES IN MALAWI
2. CUSTOMS IMPOUND VEHICLES IN DUTY EVASION CRACKDOWN
3. MALAWI POSTS AND TELECOMS DEFENDS MONOPOLY
4. MCP DISPUTES THREE BY-ELECTION RESULTS
5. MALAWI HOUSING CORPORATION UPS RENTS BY 90 PERCENT
6. BABY WITH BORN WITH TWO PAIRS HANDS AND LEGS
7. CUSTOMS WAGES WAR AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS
Feature:
BIO-GAS SOLUTION FOR MALAWI
The Malawi Industrial Research and Technology Development Centre (MIRTDC), concerned with the rapid rate at which trees are being depleted in Malawi, intends to embark on a project to generate biogas from human wastes, as an alternative source of energy. The centre's pilot project is set for Likoma Island, an island on the northern part of Lake Malawi. This area has a high deforestation rate and its only sources of electricity are diesel-powered generators. Human waste, according to the centre is a renewable source of energy that is readily available everywhere. The pioneers of the project are, however, uncertain about how the public will react.
"There are a lot of toilets from which biogas can be produced to light up the area (Likoma) and put a stop to the depletion of trees," said the team leader for the biogas project, Willy Muyila, in an interview. His fear, however, is that people might not easily accept the gas if it is to be used for cooking. He said some people might reject it for the simple reason that they felt they could not eat food cooked with their own waste, adding that to dispel such negative feelings, there will be the need for public awareness campaigns. "People need to know that gas is gas whatever its source. And in any case, nobody uses the waste straight," he said. There are already some projects creating biogas using cattle dung, banana skins, sugar cane, trash, poultry and maize straw.
Statistics for 1995 indicate that 90 percent of Malawi's population of over 11 million uses wood for fuel, which accounts for 93 percent of the country's energy. These figures do not include trees cut for timber and other agricultural purposes such as tobacco curing. According to MIRTDC, over 11 million cubic metres of gas would save some 4,400 tonnes of trees each year and, therefore, greatly reduce the deforestation rate. "These figures are high enough to prompt us to find alternative sources of energy. Deforestation should be reduced to a bearable rate.
The centre launched the biogas technology promotion programme in January last year to promote the use of the technology especially by small and medium sized enterprises. The centre is already financing one of the nine biogas plants in the country. This is in Chikwawa, south Malawi, where boiling water is used in salt manufacture. Although the centre would love to see as many people as possible using biogas, not many can afford to have the plant installed in their homes if they do not use it for commercial purposes. "It would be too expensive for those who want to use the gas for domestic use only," he said. However, Muyila hopes that with the help of government and donors, people will be able to install biogas plants for domestic use as well.
The Malawi government will only be able to finance such initiatives if the Ministry of Research and Environmental Affairs establishes an environmental fund, according to the Assistant Director for the Environmental Management and Monitoring Group, Eta M'mangisa. She said the ministry was trying to get parliament to appropriate money for the fund to help protect depleting natural resources. "But at the moment, we do not have a budget line so it is difficult to finance such a project," she said. She added that although public awareness campaigns would definitely be required, Malawians would not want to lag behind and hopes that they will accept it just as their Tanzanian neighbours. There, households are already using it for cooking.
Stories: 1. AMERICAN GOVT FUNDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES IN MALAWI
The American government has reserved K129 million (US$ 8.6 million) for HIV/Aids and family planning activities in Malawi for 1997. United States Ambassador to Malawi, Peter Cheveas, said the funding through the support to Aids and family health (Stafh), reflected an increase over the previous years' funding.
Chaveas said he was happy that a recent survey on activities of Stafh funded projects had shown positive results. He said that as an example, the use of contraceptive methods among women of reproductive age had gone up from 4 percent in 1992 to 14 percent last year. "It is likely that Malawi will achieve her 20 percent contraceptive prevalence rate by 1998," he said. Chaveas also said rapid population growth and HIV/Aids were at present depriving Southern African countries, including Malawi, of some of their most valuable resources.
The National Aids Control Programme estimates that about one million people may be carrying the HIV virus, and that close to 200,000 may have already died of Aids.
2. CUSTOMS IMPOUND VEHICLES IN DUTY EVASION CRACKDOWN
The Customs Department has seized over 100 vehicles in a crackdown on duty evasion worked by using fake documents for cars brought into the country .
Deputy Controller of Customs, Dominic Mpango, said in an interview his department had decided to start impounding the vehicles when it discovered that many car owners were using forged Customs clearing documents when registering their vehicles in the country.
He said the forgeries ranged from forged receipts to blue books. He said quite a large number of people were also driving vehicles for which they had not paid duty.
3. MALAWI POSTS AND TELECOMS DEFENDS MONOPOLY In a statement, The Malawi Posts and Telecommunications Corporation has defended its monopoly of the telecommunications industry, saying that to allow competition would cripple MPTC and deny rural areas access to telecommunication services. "Private companies will only be interested in commercial areas like Blantyre, but MPTC still has the task of extending telecommunications to rural areas."
This was in reaction to strong criticism against MPTC, a government parastatal, which many say is inefficient. Donors, during the Consultative Group meeting in France recently, expressed concern over poor telecommunications services in Malawi. They urged government to allow private sector participation in the field as one way of improving the services.
According to Malawi Posts and Telecoms, private companies are likely to grab all business in the cities, but will not invest in unprofitable rural Malawi. This will deny MPTC a source of revenue and the majority of Malawians will not have access to telecommunication facilities.
Over 80 percent of the population live in rural areas.
4. MCP DISPUTES THREE BY-ELECTION RESULTS
The opposition Malawi Congress Party, which retained two seats and lost one to the ruling UDF in the recent polls, has said it will take results of three by-elections to the High Court for alleged vote rigging and fraud. ''The Electoral Commission has failed to resolve our complaints and we will try the courts,'' said MCP publicity chief Hetherwick Ntaba. ''We believe the Commission is not independent, therefore we will go to court where we are assured of judicial independence.''
UDF won four seats in the polls in its southern region stronghold including one which it grabbed from MCP. MCP won two in central Malawi while Aford retained the seat in the north. MCP said it would dispute results in Nsanje, Mulanje and Chiradzulu, all won by UDF.
Peter Mpasu, the Commission's under secretary,said the MCP is free under the electoral law to refer their complaints to court.
5. MALAWI HOUSING CORPORATION UPS RENTS BY 90 PERCENT
The Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) has raised its rents by 90 per cent in defiance of its lawyers' advice to hold on until Parliament reviews the MHC Act which does not allow the corporation to make profits. Justice Duncan Tambala ruled April 25 that the corporation had violated Section 7 of its Act when it raised rents by more than 100 per cent last year.
The judge ordered the Corporation to raise rents by no more than 26 per cent.
MHC lawyer, Dick Chagwamnjira, said at a meeting held with MHC officials to review the ruling, that it had been agreed that Parliament should first amend the Act before the current increase could be affected. However, MHC General Manager, Lineus Msiska, said in a statement that Tambala's ruling limited the corporation to raising its rents by a maximum of 26 per cent between April 1 and March 31, 1997. Msiska said the corporation experienced acute cash flow problems as a result of the court ruling, saying MHC has increased rents once again in order to break even.
Tenants have reacted angrily to the increase, some complaining that they have already been served eviction orders. "My house was K768 (US$51.2) per month , now it is at K1,725 (US$115)," complained one tenant, Rebecca Chatepa, who together with the Consumer Association of Malawi, successfully sued MHC when it increased rent last year.
Cama Executive Secretary, John Kapito, described MHC's move as "undesirable", saying it shows that MHC does not respect the courts.
6. BABY WITH BORN WITH TWO PAIRS HANDS AND LEGS
Doctors at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre are expected to decide whether or not to operate on a baby boy joined to another body at the heart making him a rare Siamese twin with one head but two pairs of legs and hands.
In spite of having a healthy appetite, the baby boy's doctor, paediatrician, Erick Borgstein, said the baby was born with two complications: he has an extra body which grows out of his trunk and exomphalus, a continuation of the umbilical cord, which looks like a sore and which must heal first before anything surgical can be attempted.
The mother of the baby, Jennifer Sadiki, from Dedza in central Malawi, said the baby, born at the end of May, eats so much. ''Nurses even allow me to go into the nursery when it is not feeding time,' she said.
7. CUSTOMS WAGES WAR AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS
The Malawi Customs Department, alarmed by the increase in cases of drug-trafficking, is preparing itself to join a war against drug barons.
The department's head of investigations, Jim Barnard, said in an interview that the department intends to start training its staff to deal with drug-trafficking and push for the law to accommodate the new role before joining forces with the police anti-drug squad. Barnard said drug-trafficking was a major part of the British-funded customs reform programme. Training is expected to start before the end of the year.
Barnard noted that illicit drugs are brought in and out of the country with ease because the police were not properly equipped for an effective battle in this war. He said police lack transport to patrol the borders, while drug detecting police dogs are also not fully used because of the same transport problem. He also said the drug war requires a computer network with other countries in the region and overseas, to monitor the movement of drug-traffickers.
He said agreement had already been reached between his department and the police to set up a joint intelligence system and exchange of information. He said teaming up with the police would mean doubled efforts to produce effective results as was the case in other parts of the world. He said the customs department would have a computer with an international data base of drug traffickers which will be connected to Southern and Central Africa. The network will be controlled from the World Customs Organisations in Brussels, Belgium.
According to police, Malawi is mainly a transit point for dangerous drugs such as cocaine and mandrax from Asian countries, but produces cannabis (known locally as chamba), which finds its way out to markets in South Africa and Europe.
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From: AfricaNN@inform-bbs.dk (Africa_news Network) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 11:35:15 +0200 Subject: Malawi News Online #31 Message-ID: <1262354431.20834250@inform-bbs.dk>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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