21 villages to benefit from new environmental project

About 2,000 people from 21 villages in Phalombe district are expected to benefit from newly introduced Nyezelera Environmental Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (NERIP).

The project is being implemented by River of Life Organisation (ROLIFE) and it is supposed to be implemented in 15 months starting from this month up to December 2018.

Richard Muluzi, the projects coordinator for ROLIFE, told Malawi24 that the project aims at improving livelihoods of the communities through sustainable environmental rehabilitation and best agricultural practices.

He said his organisation has planned to train farmers whose fields are along river banks in the targeted two group village headsmen namely, Kaduya and Nyezelera.

“Together with the department of agriculture we will train 60 farmers that have got farming fields along banks of targeted area in conservation agriculture,” Muluzi said.

The projects coordinator revealed in an interview that the idea of coming up with the project came when his organisation was meeting with the members of targeted community which is also prone to disasters.

“It will also assist in addressing problems of natural resource management issues including soil erosion, gullies that are also contributing to the reduction of agricultural production,” added Muluzi.

In addition, the Project is also in line with the Area Development Plan of 2016/2017 which was done by the Area Development Committee (ADC) and was submitted to the district council for intervention on environmental rehabilitation and management.

NERIP is being funded by Malawi Environmental Endowment Trust (MEET) with funds amounting to over Mk6.5 Million.

ROLIFE was established in 2008 with a mission of contributing towards the social and economic development of an effective and well-coordinated community responses aimed at mitigating the impact of challenges faced.