The UNSD Glossary of Environment Statistics describes waste as materials that are not prime products (that is, product for the market) for which the generator has no further use in terms of his/her own purpose of production, transformation or consumption, and of which he/she wants to dispose. Waste may be generated during the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw material into intermediate and final products, the consumption of final products, and other human activities. Residuals recycled or reused at the place of generation are excluded. Example include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily waste (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.

Lilongwe is the largest city in Malawi with 670,000 people growing by a rate of 4.3 percent per year, one of the makes fastest growing region in the country. But with that growth comes major challenges dealing with waste management. The city has experienced the influx of rural immigration in the recent past year due to anticipation of good life in urban area through employment and business; no wonder the city registers an urbanisation rate of about eight percent making one of the fastest growing cities in the world. However, this rapid urbanisation has come with effects both positive and negative.

The biggest hit fall under the environment sector in terms of sanitation in solid and liquid waste management. Monitoring and evaluation office of community serving investment promotion statistics show that the city generates 109 tons of solid waste per day; of the total, 15 percent derives from industries, 25 percent from commercial areas, 20 percent from hospitals and 40 percent residual areas. According to the city assembly statistics, only 30 percent of the refuse is collected to dump site, 10 percent of this waste was found to be plastic in nature (which translates to 15 tonnes of plastics material generated and damped into the environment daily). 0n liquid waste management, fresh water quality in Malawi is greatly affected by human activities, like agriculture, effluent discharge and refuse dumping. The contamination of these water resources could also be attributed to the poor sanitation facilities, frequent break down, overloading.

Frequency of collection is limited to once a week due to limited number of vehicles. Collection and transportation is done using refuse compactor vehicle, skip carrier vehicle, truck and caterpillar for loading after gathering by physical sweeping. Waste from factories and market site which is mostly uncollected find its way in Lilongwe River which is used mostly by venders for cooking and some people downstream thereby polluting the river and putting the lives of people at risk. Recently, cholera outbreak hit Lilongwe the largest city of Malawi in devil street proximity Lilongwe River. According to The Times Group, news written by Mbewe, Bwaila District Hospital had treated about 39 cases of cholera and patients were still admitted at the hospital.

 On 5^TH May 2018 a group of youth organised themselves to clean an illegal dumping area which is located close to Lilongwe river and I had to join them to help in spreading the word on waste management and sanitation. Together we cleaned almost quarter of the rubbish and we have agreed that we will not stop until all the waste is removed. Below are images conveying about the event.