GO GREEN AND SAVE NATURE

 If Mungo Park or Dr. David Livingstone had reached Lilongwe city exploring around Malangalanga, they would have found a river, not as big as Niger or Shire, but full of life as that in Ezekiel 47:1. Trying to find the source of this life sustaining river, they would have passed through Area 45, Likuni, Malingunde going to the south-west of Lilongwe city. Deep breaths are then accompanied by a sigh of relief when they reach a mountain range covered with trees of different species up to 1650m above sea level, the Dzalanyama forest.

Dzalanyama forest reserve is located 60 km south-west of Lilongwe city and covers a total of 989.35km2. The forest reserve was established in 1922 to protect Lilongwe’s water resource. Dzalanyama means “full of animals”. This is evidenced as it has several species of birds hovering around trees in the forest. Most common trees are miombo with some mixture of Msuku and clumps of Nyowe. The forest is dominated with birds like; Olive headed weaver, Miombo pied barbet, Boulder Chat, White-tailed flycatcher, Black Eared Seedeater and Stirling’s Woodpecker.

 

A waterfall in Dzalanyama forest reserve

Dzalanyama forest reserve

Lilongwe river which flows out of Dzalanyama forest reserve is the main source of water for people in Lilongwe as Lilongwe Water board extract raw water from the river. There are two dams constructed along the Lilongwe river; Kamuzu Dam I and Kamuzu Dam II. Kamuzu Dam I was constructed in 1966 and has storage capacity of 4.5 million cubic meters. Kamuzu Dam II was constructed in 1989 with an initial storage capacity of 9.2 million cubic meters. The Dam was rehabilitated and raised in 1999, increasing the storage capacity to 19.8 million cubic meters.

Lilongwe river after Malingunde dam

Kamuzu Dam II also known as Malingunde dam do not only supply water to the rapid growing population of Lilongwe, but also offers fishing site to the people around Malingunde, Msinja and other villages. Villagers around the dam operate in line with the established fishing policies to catch different fish species in the mini-lake, including the Oreochromis Karongae, popularly known as Chambo. The fish are sold to generate income to support their families, and other farming businesses like Tobacco farming which is the primary farm business by most people in the central region of Malawi. Some villagers enjoy swimming on the outlet of the dam as it drains into the Lilongwe river.

Malingunde dam

Malingunde dam which is the biggest dam in Malawi, is also a tourist attraction site. People like to spend holiday at the Kamuzu Dam II viewpoint while enjoying the cool breeze from the dam. Some churches around Lilongwe love to spend one or two-weeks camp trips at the site reflecting upon the creation and the goodness of God.

Kamuzu Dam II viewpoint

For the past 10 years, people have been cutting down trees illegally in Dzalanyama for firewood and charcoal burning. Some charcoal and woods are carried from the forest via Bunda road to other places. The massive cutting down of trees lead to deforestation and lower volume of water available to be drained into Lilongwe river and other streams to supply water to the Kamuzu Dam for purification by water board and supplying tap water to the people in Lilongwe. 

However, measures have been put by Lilongwe water board, department of forestry and other stakeholders to reduce deforestation by urging people to partake the joint tree planting exercise which started in 2015. Some culprits of illegal cutting down of trees have been arrested and the plantation managers are still keeping an eye on the targeted areas to reduce the malpractice of deforestation.

Lilongwe river, as most rivers in Malawi, also suffers from an infection of water pollution especially where it passes through markets or highly populated areas. Some of the pollution are due to people’s carelessness to dump wastes in the river, while others arise from sewage system breaking and spilling into streams which are tributaries of Lilongwe river. Considering that the river drains into Lake Malawi which covers 23% of the whole country, the tendency of depositing waste into the Lilongwe river needs to be controlled as it can contaminate water in our Calendar lake disrupting the biodiverse ecosystem in the lake.

Polluted Lilongwe river

It is everyone’s responsibility as a citizen of Malawi to take care of our natural resources in order to continue reaping the benefits given unto us by them. We must resist from the spirit of polluting rivers and choose to collaboratively work with local councils to take care of the rivers to ensure cleanliness of water. To reduce impact of climate change due to global warming, we need to embrace tree planting initiatives to relive forests in the country. More trees should also be planted in our residential areas to protect houses from raindrop impacts which have been destroying the houses in most areas across the country. Students studying energy engineering and other people in the energy sector should devise alternative sources of fuel to the charcoal, and advocacy journalists will advocate for the new innovations to protect trees in forest reserves from illegal cutting down. Together we can celebrate Malawi as the warm heart of Africa.