Uncle Harvest: If I were mayor or CEO of a Malawian City

Malawian cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba, all face four major deficiencies.

Malawian cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Zomba, all face four major deficiencies.

If I were a Mayor or Chief Executive Officer of one of these cities I would come up with a detailed plan to address these four challenges.

Cities, like every human settlement attract garbage accumulation, fire incidents, road accidents/high levels of crime, and emergency illnesses.

As Mayor or CEO I would develop a Disaster Management Strategy that seeks to have a robust Waste Management System of both dry and wet waste.

This would compromise of a citywide waste collection and sewer systems. Citizens would be taught on how to grade their waste and put in different containers so as to promote recycling and reuse programmes.

Secondly,I would place Fire Stations at strategic places in the city, with several vehicles and not to rely on the nearest Airport Fire Services.

Human settlements are prone to both electrical and non- electrical fires. A robust fire reaction service is therefore paramount for any city.

Thirdly, due to the many health emergency issues that arise in a city, whether due to accidents or illnesses, I would set up an ambulance service that has a capacity to reach out to any part of the city within the shortest possible period of time to prevent loss of lives.

The fourth would be the creation of a rapid police response system to attend any security and safety related emergencies and accidents.

I would coordinate and impress upon the Malawi Police Service of such a need, with the City Council providing the vehicles for this purpose.

I would then proceed to work with all telephone providers for them to provide free toll emergency numbers for these four services.

The system would be simplified that all telephone providers would facilitate the use of the same number for a particular service.

Such emergency numbers must be easy to remember, not more than three digits.

This is how any modern city is organised.

Towards MW2063.