Councils encouraged to harvest rain water

By Wakisa Myamba

Commissioner for Disaster Management Affairs in the Office of President and Cabinet, Charles Kalemba has asked councils to construct dams to harvest runoff during rainy season and use for irrigation during episodes of drought and the dry season.

Speaking on Thursday at Mwenitete Primary School in Karonga during maize distribution to hunger-hit households, Kalemba said harvesting rain water for irrigation purposes is one of the innovative ways councils can improve food security in their respective districts.

\”Councils should come up with ways to make their districts food secure. They should explore how they can use constituency development funds and district development funds in constructing dams for harvesting rain water for irrigation,\” said Kalemba

He said government was distributing relief maize to food insecure households across the country to ensure no one dies because of hunger.

Senior Chief Kilupula advised beneficiaries to avoid selling the relief maize.

“I also appeal to everyone to practice afforestation and re-afforestation in order to restore our degraded land and improve it for agriculture production. In such a way, we will be able to produce enough food for ourselves and stop depending on relief food donations,” he said.

One of the beneficiaries Saint-Rave Kasongwa Mwaipape who hails from Somba Village in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Kilupura said the maize donation was a sigh of relief for his family which was affected by hunger after it failed to harvest enough maize during the last growing season.