Blantyre City Council (BCC) has purchased three refuse collection vehicles at a cost of more than MK538, 120 million from Toyota Malawi with the aim of intensifying sanitation in the city.

The trucks have been bought with funding through a loan from the Development Fund for Local Authorities (DFLA).

The unveiling ceremony of the vehicles was held on Friday at the council’s Civic Centre offices and was graced by the Minister of Local Government, Professor Blessings Chinsinga.

In his remarks, Chinsinga said the vehicles will assist in achieving a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 11 of 2030 which aims at making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Chinsinga further commended BCC for making its own effort to buy the vehicles using its own resources saying it is in line with the provisions of decentralization policy which requires councils to be financially independent.

“This is quite significant, Blantyre City Council has shown the way and we expect that the rest of the councils in this country will follow,” he said.

Chinsinga added that his ministry will push for the Local Level Framework for Taxation enactment to ensure that the necessary legislative framework exist so that councils can be in a position to mobilize their own resources locally.

However, the minister has bemoaned the continued poor sanitation in the cities of the country as compared to most cities in the neighboring countries.

“My appeal is that residents from all the cities must make a choice to develop, otherwise when we visit to cities in our neighboring countries, we discover that we are miles of the base, and we cannot allow that to continue,” he said.

In his remarks, Blantyre City Mayor, Councilor Wild Ndipo, said the city requires 23 refuse collection vehicles for a smooth service and the coming of three vehicles brings the number of worthy vehicles to six.