By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
Coordination Unit for the Rehabilitation of environment(Cure) , a non governmental organization dealing with issues of environment and climate change in the country has urged government to withdraw plans of constructing a stadium at Njamba freedom park in Blantyre.
Board chairperson for the unit Menard Nyirenda said this in Blantyre on Saturday when the organization in conjunction with other partners joined hands in a tree planting and waste management exercise at the park.
The previous government revealed plans to turn the park into a Blantyre stadium and a shopping area.
Nyirenda said the freedom is best placed for tourists and income generating activities for the country.
“If well invested, both international and domestic can be visiting this historical place and pay for the services, thereby, generating resources to support other development projects in the country,” he said.
Nyirenda said it was pity to see the destination being turned into a hub of thieves due to the lack of interest from government to turn it into a productive site.
Nyirenda said his organisation partnered with other organisations for the efficient and effective implementation of the exercise.
He further said the residents are vulnerable to numerous challenges hence needed intervention measures.
Nyirenda wondered why the city continued to reel under a myriad of challenges in the quest to take care of it’s botanic resources, and improve on the variety of the botanic endowments it has.
“We need the residents to be responsible. Many places have lost trees meant for wind breaks, therefore, we want to restore nature and residents are the best implementers and custodians for the project. Besides, we engage residents in waste management awareness around the site so as not to be a dumping area for refusals, ” he said
Among others, Nyirenda called for the courts of law to speed up the thin plastic pollution ban case to ensure that the country reclaim it’s lost glory of being a clean country.
Blantyre City mayor Wild Ndipo said his council has intensified efforts to turn the site into an income generating hub through the installation of various paid for infrastructures and services.
He said planting trees in the city will go along the way in preventing the city from the environmental shocks.
“The city has been a victim to various environmental shocks recently due to reckless cutting down of trees, therefore we need to instil a culture of forestation and reforestation so that residents enjoy flora and fauna.
Njamba Freedom Park is a historical site where Pope John Paul 2 ministered mass in the late 90s.
