By Beatrice Babgula

Blantyre, Aug 1, Mana: Blantyre District Council has expressed satisfaction over communities’ active participation in activities under Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programmes (CS EPWP) which are meant to restore land and other environmentally degraded features.

Land Resource Conservation Officer for Blantyre District Council, Charles Mthyoka expressed the satisfaction on Wednesday at Traditional Authority Kapeni during an assessment exercise to see how communities implemented various activities to restore degraded land in the district.

Mthyoka observed that dedication among CSEPWP participants also contributed to improved food production in most rural areas in Blantyre.

“Initiatives under CSEPWP have shown that there is a lot of dedication among participants. We have seen various activities such as construction of swales beside marker ridges, gully reclamation, afforestation and natural regeneration by participating communities.” he said.

Mthyoka further observed that some climate smart related agricultural activities have helped farmers to realize good crop harvest after adopting best agricultural practices that are also environmental friendly,

“We tried our best to empower communities, traditional leaders and catchment members so that they should continue with climate smart activities even when this project ends,” he said.

A farmer, John Chide from Cedrick Village Traditional Authority Kapeni in Blantyre said farmers in his catchment were harvesting much than before the CSEPWP was introduced in the area.

“The initiative has completely changed the lives of farmers for the better in terms of harvests, when we compare the present and the past, it is very clear that CSEPWP has positive impact on the communities” he said.

Chilambalale Catchment Conservation Committee member, Alinete James said CS-EPWP has improved livelihood of the communities after adopting best climate smart agricultural activities in the gardens.

“We construct swales beside marker ridges, we gather stones and place them in several lines inside the gully to prevent the speed of running water and this assists in addressing issues of land degradation,” she said.

James recalled that communities planted trees along rivers in the catchment and other forest related activities.

“We get paid at the end of the day to improve household income,” she said, adding that activities in the CSEPWP have proven to be the best environmental practices that every community should adopt for sustainable livelihood.

Chairperson for Chilambalale Catchment, Harrison Tsonga said members of the community embraced CSEPWP.

“We no longer worry about runoff water which was causing destruction to our gardens. We are able to control the water and we also harvest the water in one way or another,” he said.

In Blantyre CSEPWP has about 17,000 participants in 15 catchments including Chilambalale, which has 1,010.

CSEPWP is funded by the World Bank, facilitated by the National Local Government Finance Committee and being implemented by local councils across Malawi.