By Alice Ndunya
Machinga, May 4, Mana: Machinga District Council has assured participating communities in Climate Smart-Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP) that it will improve on payment of wages to ensure timely and consistent wage payment of participants in the social protection programme.
The council made the assurance after CS-EPWP under Nkhande catchment, at Paramount Chief Kawinga's area in the district, after they complained of delayed and inadequate wages, which they said fail to meet their day-to-day needs.
Machinga District Council’s Information Communication Technology Officer, Lucy Beyadi acknowledged the challenges and assured the participating communities that the council was addressing late payment and other challenges in the programme.
“We are aware of these problems and right now some of them have been resolved, for instance, we had challenges with our server which we use when paying the participants but as of now, it has been resolved,” she added...
The payment of workers that participated in the fourth phase of CS-EPWP, which was completed some months ago, is expected to cover 22 catchments in the district.
One of CS-EPWP, participants, James Rashid, said that they waited for three months before receiving their wages and complained that the wages were not sufficient to make ends meet considering current cost of living.
“We have waited this long to receive payments such that it became worrisome. The affected our plans as we failed to buy basic necessities for our families,” he added.
Another CS-EPWP participant, Hilda Kawinga from Michongwe Village, Paramount Chief Kawinga’s area expressed joy over the payment, saying though the wage payment delayed,, it will still help her buy school materials for her grandchildren while the other part of the wages will be used for household needs.
“I will use the money to buy exercises books for my grandchildren while the rest we will buy food at home,” Kawinga added.
She therefore commended Machinga District Commissioner, Rodrick Mateauma for taking his time to inspecting wage payment in Nkhande catchment.
“I am glad that we have been given a chance to express our concerns. This is a testimony that the council is committed to look into our concerns,” she said
In his sentiments, Mateauma encouraged the participants to continue working hard in all the activities aligned with the restoration of the environment in their respective catchments.
“We will continue to look into the welfare of the participants. This is evident from the recent increment as government adjusted the wages from K900.00 to K1, 600.00 per day.” He added.
The District Commissioner observed that CS-EPWP brought significant livelihood transformation and improvements in environmental conservation compared to years before the commencement of the programme in the district.
“The environment was in total shambles and there was an outcry from the community complaining of poor food harvest as a result of the effects of climate change in their agricultural activities.
“I therefore call upon communities to be committed to conservational agriculture and to adhere to all measures that help to sustain land management in the wake of climate change,” he added.
CS-EPWP is funded by the World Bank to improve livelihoods among communities through various wage-earning catchment activities such as reafforestation and other sustainable land resource initiatives.
