By Felix Katemula

Karonga, September 15, Mana: It has emerged that people living around land owned by Karonga district council are encroaching by farming and constructing houses.

This was revealed Saturday by various sectors of the council during a council meeting held in the district.

Karonga District Council Chairperson Belliam Msukwa said this is a worrisome development considering that the most encroached places are the ones that were kept for the construction of school blocks and hospital wards.

“We have been struggling to reclaim and develop the land which belongs to the government in some areas because encroachers cling to them saying the land was given to them by their ancestors,” Msukwa said.

He further said the council is in the process of acquiring title deeds for all the public land in Karonga to avoid encroachment.

“We have engaged the Department of Lands to register all the public land and give us title deeds. Cases of encroachment such as that at Nyungwe Health facility where a person has built a house within the land belonging to a health centre will be dealt with through this process,” he said.

Alfred Nyirenda Director of Agriculture Services in Karonga said that the agriculture sector has been greatly affected since most of its extension land has been encroached.

“We have hostile communities at Lupembe and other areas in the district who we are at loggerheads with because they have encroached the land that belong to the agriculture extension services.

“We are failing to fulfil some of our core agriculture interventions because of the hostility we face in the areas that have been encroached,” said Nyirenda.

Agness Mwafongo who has a plot in Baka Research Station area said she was given the land by her grandparents and sees no reason to let it go in the hands of the research station which has not used the piece of land for years.

“We have been growing maize at this portion of land every year for nine consecutive years and that has kept my family's food secure, where were the agriculture authorities all this time?" Mwafongo queried.