By Frank Nkondetseni, Contributor

The Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA) has intensified inspection of hotels, holiday resorts and lodges along Lake Malawi to ascertain compliance to environmental protection standards.  

MEPA in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, the National Water Resources Authority, the Central Water Lab and the districts councils is conducting inspection of hotels, resorts and lodges along the lakeshore in Karonga, Salima and Mangochi districts.

The Authority will also conduct similar exercise in Nkhotakota, Nkhata Bay districts as it intends to cover all districts in the country.   

Speaking on the inspection the exercise on Wednesday, MEPA Acting Deputy Director General, Michael Makonombera underscored the importance of the inspections, saying they help to enforce adherence to environmental protection standards.

He cited the Environmental Management Act which provides for the right to clean and healthy environment for every person in Malawi.

“The inspection will also help the resort owners to always keep their facilities tidy so as to meet their customers satisfaction,” he said.

Makonombera said it is important that resort owners should be mindful of environmental issues and follow advice given by the inspectors, warning that MEPA will not hesitate to take stiff action for non-compliance.

“Any pockets of non-compliance to the provisions of Environmental Management Act will not be taken lightly; we will take it as a challenge to the Act and MEPA being the implementer of the Act will take stiff measures against perpetrators,” Makonombera said.

During the exercise, the inspectors are paying more attention to general cleanliness of the premises including toilets, conference rooms, kitchen, water treatment, management of both liquid and solid waste from the kitchen, laundry, plumbing works as well as septic tanks so that, among other things, no facility owner discharge waste into the lake.  

The inspection of facilities along the lake includes public access to the beaches and common water as construction of fences into the lake and any attempts to prevent public access to the beaches is prohibited.

Other areas of focus during inspections include general appearance of the buildings, availability of environment assessment licenses, tourism licence, water abstraction permit and effluent discharge certificate to those with waste water treatment plants that release effluent, among other requirements.

MEPA will after the exercise produce reports outlining areas which require remedial action for each of the facilities inspected.  

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