By Fostina Mkandawire

Salima, May 2, Mana: As one way of increasing the number of participants under the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP) from 16,813 participants to a target of 20,331 participants, Salima District Council has commenced validating and enrolling the participants into the programme.

Speaking during the validation exercise at Lilongwe catchment on Thursday, in the area of Senior Chief Kalonga, Acting Director of Environment and Natural Resources Adam Jason said he was optimistic that the district would meet the target.        

Jason said it was a good development that more people will benefit from the programme while also anticipating to get a bigger environmental impact out of the programme.

"We are expecting to have an increase in areas of land under forest landscape restoration though the land has been affected with run-off water and deforestation, having more people on the ground working towards restoring the environment will be beneficial to the district," he said.

He said increasing the number of participants will also increase environmental productive assets such as regenerated forests and soil fertility which in turn will provide communities with food and fresh air.

"Apart from environmental gains there will also be an increase in number of communities with resilient livelihoods through the cash received through the project," he said.

One of the prospective participant of the programme, a 57 years old widower, Zione Nyakanyaka said she was happy that her name was called out during the validation exercise, saying that she takes care of her family, therefore the money she will receive will help in alleviating her poverty.

"I take care of my grandchildren and orphans, we are struggling with hunger, to be given a chance to work under this programme is such a relief," she said.

Desk Officer for CS-EPWP in the district, Gift Majawa expressed optimism that the district will be able to meet the target which signifies a 15 percent increase.

He said they intensified awareness campaign ahead of the exercise therefore turn out has been good during the validation exercise.

"We have an additional 3,518 participants to be enrolled into the programme from, it is very important to ensure that people continue showing up during the validation exercise so that they can be enrolled into different projects in their catchment areas," he said.

National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGC) is set to revise the number of participants of CSEPWP in the country from 435,000 to 520,000.

CS-EPWP is a component under the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP). The SSRLP is a Malawi Government project funded by the Multi Donor Trust Fund facilitated by the NLGFC in all the 28 district councils.