Environment in Malawi Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Environment in Malawi Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

For Merly the British protectorate of Nyasaland, the Republic of Malawi won its independence in 1964, setting the stage for 30 years of one-party rule under President Hastings Kamuzu Banda. In

1994, Malawi held its first multiparty elections. The long colonial legacy in the region, which made Malawians the labor force for agricultural and mining economies in adjacent countries, has continued to prevent the country from making substantial economic progress, along with problems in governance and policy.

Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world even though natural resources include limestone, hydropower, and deposits of uranium, coal, and bauxite. Barely 16 percent of the population is urbanized. More than 23 percent of land area is arable, and over 90 percent of the workforce are engaged in subsistence agriculture, generally in growing tobacco. Prolonged droughts such as the one that hit Malawi in 2005 and 2006 are capable of creating major food shortages.

With a per capita income of only $600, Malawi is the third poorest country in the entire world, outranked only by the newly formed East Timor and the politically turbulent Gaza Strip. Some 55 percent of Malawians live below the national poverty line, and a third of the population is seriously undernourished. Government revenues are heavily dependent on economic assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In 2000, Malawi was approved for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative.

Although landlocked, Malawi shares a 580 kilometer border along Lake Nyasa with neighboring Tanzania and Mozambique. Malawi also borders Zambia. Except for some rounded hills and mountains, the land area of Malawi is comprised of a narrow elongated plateau with rolling plains. Elevations range from 37 meters where the Shire River meets the international border with Mozambique to 3,002 meters at Sapitwa Mlanje. Malawi’s subtropical climate has a distinct rainy season that lasts from November to May when the six-month dry season begins.

Environmental health issues are of major concern among Malawi’s population of 13,013,926, in large part because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. With a 14.2 percent adult prevalence rate, 84,000 people have died from HIV/AIDS since 2003. Another 900,000 are living with the disease. One-third of the population lacks sustained access to safe drinking water, and 54 percent lack access to improved sanitation. As a result, Malawians have a very high risk factor for contracting food and waterborne diseases such as bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and the water contact disease schistosomiasis. In some areas, Malawians are also at very high risk for contracting vectorborne diseases such as malaria and plague.

Because of the high incidence of disease in Malawi, the country is experiencing lower than normal life expectancy (41.7 years) and growth rates (2.38 percent), and higher than normal infant mortality (94.37 deaths per 1,000 live births) and death rates (19.33 deaths per 1,000/population).

Malawian women give birth to an average of six children each. The fact that less than half of all females over the age of 15 can read and write makes it difficult for the government to educate them about disease prevention. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Reports rank Malawi 165 of 232 countries on overall quality of life issues.

Other major environmental problems include deforestation, which is occurring at a rate of three percent annually, and land degradation. Water has been heavily polluted from the dumping of raw sewage, agricultural runoff, and industrial effluents. Water resources are being depleted, and increasing siltation of spawning grounds has created major obstacles for marine life. Because 60 to 70 percent of protein in the Malawian diet comes from fish, the 40 percent decrease in fish production has threatened food supplies and presented a health hazard.

The destruction of the forests is contributing to a significant loss of biodiversity, and habitats are increasingly being threatened. In 2006 scientists at Yale University ranked Malawi 91 of 132 countries on environmental performance, below the relevant geographic group and considerably below the relevant income group. The overall score was reduced because of the low score in environmental health.

The Constitution of 1995 acknowledges that the government has a responsibility for preventing degradation of the environment and for providing healthy living and working environments. In 1996 the government adopted the National Environmental Policy based on the National Environment Action Plan, focusing on bringing the public into partnership with the government to halt further environmental degradation. The National Council for the Environment was given the authority to mediate when necessary, and the Environmental Affairs Department was charged with coordination of all environmental policy. The government has focused a good deal of attention on reversing the damage to fisheries by protecting breeding grounds and placing restrictions on how fish are caught. With 27.2 percent of Malawi still forested, the government has also protected 11.2 percent of land area. Of 105 identified mammal species, eight are endangered, as are 11 of 210 bird species.

Malawi participates in the following international agreements on the environment: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, and Wetlands. The Law of the Sea agreement has been signed but not ratified.

Bibliography:

Timothy Doyle, Environmental Movements in Minority and Majority Worlds: A Global Perspective (Rutgers University Press, 2005);
Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, Africa and the Middle East: A Continental Overview of Environmental Issues (ABC-CLIO, 2003);
Valentine Udoh James, Africa’s Ecology: Sustaining the Biological and Environmental Diversity of A Continent (McFarland, 1993).