By Petro Mkandawire

Blantyre, May 30, Mana: Senior Social Protection Specialist and Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP) for World Bank Mission Task Team Leader, Chipo Msowoya has expressed gratitude over the climate-smart public works programme (CS-PWP).

He said the project has reduced households' exposure to risks of climate change, climate disasters and that communities are adopting land resource conservation and were practicing afforestation.

Msowoya was speaking on Wednesday at Lunzu in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Makata in Blantyre during the World Bank’s mission supervision of the Linjemesi catchment area where climate smart project is being implemented with an aim of creating visible, durable and quality assets within micro catchments that will assist in improving household resilience and food security.

He said the Mission decided to visit Blantyre because the mid-term review of the project was on-going as such they wanted to acquire field insights and achievements that should inform and re-assess the project on how to enhance the intervention.

“Since the beginning of supporting public works through national and local government in the past, we were witnessing relatively lesser community ownership of project assets but now we are seeing communities appreciating much more and taking the project as their intervention which reassures us of sustainability beyond the project support,” Msowoya noted.

He added that the development was encouraging and impactful such that the World Bank plans to increase the number of participants in the project and extend duration due to a sense of ownership among the communities.

The Climate-Smart Project is being implemented in all districts of the country  under the SSRLP initiative whereby in Blantyre, it is being run in Zemba, Nazombe, Mombo, Mlombozi, Milare Chilambalare, Mikundi, Mgawa Masinde, Mabala, Lirangwe 2, Likhubula, Kamwendo Linjemesi and Somba catchments area and it runs from 2020 to 2027.

Linjemesi Catchment Area Chairperson, Crissy Yasini said the project has helped them to realize good yield due to the use of check dams and swalles that enhanced the availability of irrigation water and helped in the slowing run-off, preventing crops from being washed away.

“We have benefited a lot through this project, floods did not affect us much which resulted in a good harvest that has even allowed us to find our basic needs, we can now pay school fees for our children and since the introduction of swalles and check dams, we can grow crops and harvest more at a place where I wasn’t able to harvest,” she said.

Director of Planning and Development (DPD) for Blantyre District Council, Melayi Mhone hailed the World Bank for supporting the council and government in the project, expressing satisfaction with the level of community participation in the project.

“Indeed the project is bearing fruits, as council through different stakeholders we are geared to support community members to meet the government mandate of Malawi Vision 2063 as such, I am urging the community members to participate in developmental projects,” he said.

Linjemesi Catchment Area is over 377.5 hectares with over 1876 families; whereby, participants of the project have managed to plant 25,133 trees along river banks and 1,889 in homestead woodlots which saves the community in different ways.