I was travelling in the Mwanza route today and was suddened to see the rate at which the natureal forest that garced the road all the way from Lirangwe to Mwanza is in a sorry state all because of the charcoal burners and firewood.

All this is atributed to the lack of electricity to the rural masses (which i doubt) because most of the charcoal and firewood end up in town where the majority have electricity in their homes, my bet is, its not the level of poverty in town that force people to buy charcoal but insesitivity to the environment. I once read a comment in the local press saying every year trees are planted but never taken care of (mind you these are hybrid trees that need attention) if only every person plants a tree every year and takes care of it for the period that it is to be self sustaining we could see the forests blooming back along the roads and deep into the villages.

I do a considerable amount of travelling cross country and the situation is almost the same everywhere i go talk of Phalombe/Mulanje bare!! Ntaja bare!! Kasungu bare!!Mzimba bare!! mchinji bare!! (Save for Dzalanyama which is on the same path anyway as its the only forest left) and some of these forest going thanks to the so called Malawi green gold fetching peanuts at the auction floors (My! my! my!) if we do a cost benefit analysis on tobacco i would suggest we grow maize to the max and export it to all these countries in africa going hungry (starting with our own country) imagine a farmer saying he has no food to eat and lives on mangoes and tuber yet he has a farm full of tobacco in anticipation of the floors to open where he is according to Bingu ROBBED BY THE WHITE MAN.

With our ageing power station, raising the costs of maintenace can electricity be affordable so as every Mabvuto and Chimwemwe can afford to cook, dry tobacco, brew kachasu using electricity??

I cry for my Malawi, talking of solar ? Mbwiye you cant even afford the panels save for the batteries and if you do you make yourself a bulls eye for the sophisticated zambian and tanzanian thief who is ready to pounce on anything that glitters.

I DONT KNOW IF WE CAN HAVE A LASTING SOLUTION.