The land in Wiliro in Paramount Chief Kyungu in Karonga District may not have lost much of its vegetative cover and top soil, but is under threat of losing the same due to human habitation.

The land, located is in Group Village Head Mwenechilanga, is hilly with stony soils and steep slopes covered with grass and some trees.

Some community members are settling and cultivating on the sloppy land without making recommended contour structures to control run-off, which is against agricultural principles.

“Prevention is better than cure” is the adage communities in Mwenechilanga want to go by, that is why they do not want to wait till the area is completely degraded before taking action.

No wonder the area is candidate for the pilot project dubbed ‘Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP)’ which will run for nine months in 10 districts across the country.

National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) will implement the project with multi-sectoral stakeholders at district and community levels.

The project, which targets 1,000 people in each of the 10 pilot districts, aims to strengthen household resilience to shocks and create durable community assets.

It also focuses on integrated watershed management through sub projects purposed for land resource conservation, afforestation, environment, sanitation as well as sustainable livelihood activities among other areas.

To kick-start the project, NLGFC recently organised trainings for district officers and extension workers from various sectors in all the districts involved in the pilot phase, including Karonga and Chitipa.

The training ran from Tuesday, February 18 to Friday, February 21, 2020. Conducting a transect walk was a practical part of the training for the Chitipa group which trained in Karonga.

The exercise involved walking across the proposed project catchment with members of the village development committee (VDC).

During the walk, technical officers took note of the nature of soil, vegetation cover, terrain as well as human activities currently taking place on the area.

The officers also agreed to identify threats of the proposed project site which are likely to lead to land degradation, deforestation or any other environmental damage to the land.

Those were the factors to determine whether the area should be passed for the EPWP pilot project so that it is protected from those environmental threats.

District Environmental Sub Committee (DESC), district officers and extension workers conducted the transect walk as participants to the training. They were led by the area’s VDC members.

The area in question has not completely lost its trees, but observation showed it would soon lose them, including top soils.

This is due to the unsustainable cutting down of trees induced by both cultivation and human habitation or settlement which has noticeably started taking place on this sloppy land.

“If we leave the situation like this, we will one day wake up only to see the hills are bare,” said Group Village Head Mwenechilanga as he assisted fellow villagers to draw the map for the proposed project catchment area.

The Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) succeeds the MASAF 4 Public Works Program (PWP), and targets the ultra-poor communities but those with capacity to work.

The project is expected to fill the gaps that were, in some cases, left by the predecessor MASAF 4 PWP.

“In the PWP, we had 16 catchments in Chitipa and activities were scattered all over, so it was difficult for the project to have impact.

“This time we will have only five catchments, which means the impact will be there and easy to see,” Chitipa District Land Resources Officer, Baldwin Kitamula said during the training.

The training for the Chitipa team attracted 11 DESC members and 25 extension workers from five proposed NLGFC project catchments.

Extension workers were drawn from Agriculture, Forestry and Community Development among other sectors.

The training session tackled topics such Planning, Project Management, Financial Management and procurement among others.

“We are touching all levels with training, including community members.

“VDCs are also supposed to be trained in planning, Financial Management, Project Management and Procurement of goods and services,” Karonga NLGFC Project Officer, Edward Ngwemba who facilitated the training in Chitipa said.

The idea behind training communities will be to empower them, and instill a spirit of responsibility and ownership as they are the ones to take a bigger role in implementing the project.

In this way, it is expected that communities themselves will be able to sustain the EPWP projects such as those aimed at protecting land resources from destructive activities in areas like the hilly and sloppy land in Wiliro of Paramount Chief Kyungu in Karonga.