Seventy community members from Mangochi made an all-important trip to the country’s power generation station Nkula. This was in 2015 and the objective was to understand the source of electricity and its intricacies. Senior Chief Jalasi led the team comprising 20 group village heads (GVH) under his jurisdiction, lead farmers and area development committee members from the area. Moving around Nkula, appreciating how electricity is generated and the role of Shire River in the process was all fun, recalls Senior GVH Balakasi, one of the chiefs on the trip. But one incident sucked out all the fun, It left them speechless and deeply concerned. “The sight of tonnes of silt and debris choking the power generation process shocked us,” says Balakasi. “We were told that all that waste comes from the upstream of the river.” As they watched an excavator hopelessly scooping the debris to create breathing space for the labouring power generating engines, they knew that some of the waste could be from Mangochi, Lingamasa River to be specific. Lingamasa River is one of Shire’s big tributaries on the upper region and its catchment is in Senior Chief Jalasi’s area, surrounded by the 20 GVHs who were on this tour. The trip became a turning point for over 6 000 households in Senior ChieJalasi’s area who thought of intervening to consere the environment. […]
Such is how Assemblies of God (AG) Care introduced its project in Jalasi’s area in December 2015, targeting over 6 000 households in 20 GVHs with funds from the Millennium Challenge Account. […] Its scope centred on upscaling activites that were thematically addressing environment and natural resources management, social and gender empowerment. […]
Under the project residents of Kamwendo Village mobilised themselves and started to create checkdams across the gullies right from uphill down to the village. […] “In three years, we have managed to protect our soils from erosion down to Lingamasa River through use of vetiver grass, checkdams, marker ridges and conservation agriculture as taught by AG Care, ” he [Noxy Chatha, chair of the working committee in Malekano Village] says. Households in Malekano Village are also benefitting from Mpulukunya Forest, which they have allowed to regenerate under the AG Care project, and they have mounted beehives for honey production. Each of the 20 GVHs owns a forest they are regenerating and doing beekeeping.
The introduction of a fuel-efficient stove is one of AG Care’s interventions that have won the hearts of many households in Jalasi. The stove is a simple technology comprising a clay oven with one hole on top for a pot and one on the front side for fuel wood. “Life is easy using this stove because it consumes less wood compared to the traditional three-stone stove, ” says Margaret Amin from Kabuthu Village in Senior Chief Jalasi. “One standard bundle of fuel wood measuring about two metres long would last one week or less using the old method. But with the new stove, we are using the same bundle for a month,” Amin explains. […]
A green cover is spreading across Jalasi as the trees communities are planting grow undisturbed. Runoff and soil erosion have decreased as households continue to control slopes and reclaim gullies.
Get more information in the article below.