District Commissioner for Dowa, Alex Mdooko has asked extension workers in the district to observe standards and norms on EPWP projects saying the efforts should yield a great performance of the program in the district.
Mdooko said this in Mponela as he was opening a 4 day training workshop for the nursery establishment and soil and water conservation for extension staff in the district.
The District Commissioner asked the participants to take the training sessions seriously for the lessons to have impact on the ground.
“The approach we need to take this time around should be different. Learning from the previous PWP program it was more less of a cash transfer program not assets creation. So we need to be vigilant in terms of observation of norms and standards of projects bearing in mind that this is a pilot phase which depends much on performance. We also need to ensure coordination, taking on board all necessary stakeholders for successful implementation,” said Mdooko.
The District Commissioner further asked the extension workers to be taking precautionary measures to prevent Corona virus (COVID-19) as they do their field work.
“The extension workers interact with members of the community therefore they should make sure they observe measures such as social distance, making sure hand washing facilities are available whenever they are meeting people,” said Mdooko.
According to the EPWP project implementation manual the focus of the program is on integrated watershed management, covering sub-projects such as land resource conservation, afforestation, environment, sanitation and road infrastructure as well as sustainable livelihoods.
Speaking in an interview with one of the facilitators at the training, Dowa District Forestry Officer, Deborah Mushari said the present training emphasized much on nursery establishment and management to address the issue of a decrease in survival rate of trees.
“We are stressing more on hardening off the seedlings. This means steadily decreasing the amount and frequency of watering and shedding before transplanting, so that they are able to survive under natural conditions in the field. Another thing is on Root Pruning which means to produce short, compact, fibrous roots consisting of mainly lateral roots and to discourage the growth of a long tap root. We believe this will help increase the survival rate of trees” said Mushari.
Speaking earlier the Chief Draughtsman Officer for the department of Land Resources, Dickson Chonongera, said the EPWP program is crucial considering that it is a pilot project in preparation for the implementation of the future PWP.
“The pilot program is for 8 months, depending totally on results and lessons which we expect to inform the design of the future PWP. Extension workers are crucial in the implementation of the program thereby they are going through trainings on different subprojects management. We are also providing training manuals so that they can apply as they are discharging duties,” said Chonongera.
EPWP is being implemented in 10 district councils targeting 1000 participants per district and a maximum of 5micro-catchment in each of the districts, not larger than 250 hectors each.
Story Credits: Tiyanjane Nandie Mambucha
