The National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) says the Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) pilot phase roll out in ten districts is encouraging in that all the councils have commenced implementation of the EPWP micro catchment activities.

Coordinator for the Project at the NLGFC Stanley Chuthi said this during a week-long micro catchment activity monitoring exercise across the ten pilot districts.

Chuthi said the commencement of the pilot project is a statement by the communities in the ten districts that they have understood the project objectives and will ensure its success.

‘The pilot will run for a period of 8 months in 10 district councils and there are 5 micro-catchments in each district, with an average size of not more than 250 hectares,’ said Chuthi.

Chuthi said the maximum number of beneficiaries per district is 1000 who will be required to work for 12 days per month for a period of 8 months.

Speaking during the exercise, secretary for Chilambalale micro catchment in Blantyre, Rose Sailesi, said the project would help them arrest growing gulleys that have ravaged the area due to land degradation, which has led to receding water levels and declining food harvests.

‘The project has come at the right time’, said Sailesi.

‘We are now doing something about our degraded catchment, we are united as a community, and I am looking forward to improved water table levels, increase in harvests as well as ease of access to firewood’, added Sailesi.

The current roll out works under implementation in the micro catchment areas include nursery preparation, swale construction, Stoneridge construction, marker ridging, manure making, tree profiling, pit planting, construction of check dams among others.

The pilot project phase will mostly encourage a holistic catchment management approach and prioritization of land resource conservation technologies by districts in the micro – catchments.

The EPWP is being implemented in 10 pilot districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Kasungu, Dowa, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe, Balaka, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Blantyre.

The 10 districts under the pilot were selected based on a composite index aggregated from an average of; the degree of environmental degradation, poverty levels and food insecurity.

Meanwhile Coordinator Chuthi says in the fight against COVID -19, the pilot implementation phase; with development partner support, has also distributed soap and masks to all area catchment committees in the ten pilot districts.  

The NLGFC is envisaging that the EPWP pilot project, will inform future Public Works Programmes through lessons generated from the enhanced pilot.