Eneless Wonderford of Chikanda village in Traditional Authority Thombodiya in Mulanje District is a married woman with two children.

She recalls how her garden with almost matured maize and other crops like pigeon peas, millet and cassava that were yet to recover from a drought were washed away by the flooding water during the March 2023 Tropical Cyclone Freddy.

She said her heart was broken as this was the only food garden she had.

“As if that was not enough, my house fell down and a lot of valuable items got damaged during the disaster," Eneless narrated.

Mathews Juwa, a married man of three children from Nakuzale village. was not spared by the devastating Freddy.

Juwa said his crop garden was swept by the floods. 

Wonderford and Juwa are among the 553 participants of the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP) at Nakuzale catchment area in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Tombodiya. The catchment area has six sub projects namely: Thawila, Nyangayathyoka, Nakamba, Chikomwe and Nankhwazi. 

The participants are engaged in different activities to restore and conserve the environment. 

"We are constructing check dams, swales and contour ridges to control the flow of water at the same time harvest water and we have no doubt that this will help us to recover from the wounds left by the Freddy," said the participants we found at Nakuzale.  

At the end of a single phase which takes 30 days, the participants receive K38, 000 each.

But the participants have asked the government to adjust the wages, saying the K38, 000 they are receiving per phase is on the lower side.

Wonderford said the prices of food items like maize and other basic goods have drastically increased recently, to the money is just too little to support their families.

"We are just pleading with the government that if possible it should raise the wages to at least K50, 000 per phase," said Wonderford.

Her sentiments were echoed by Charles Samuel of Kazembe catchment area in Traditional Authority Nkanda who said they cannot afford to pay school fees which have been increased even in public secondary schools.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed that the government will hear our request," said Samuel.

However, the participants have described the CS-EPWP as a game changer in socio-economic development of their communities.

Under the programme, they are also planting trees on river banks, hills and some trees are fertility enhancing trees in their gardens

Goodson Saliya is one of the participants at Kazembe catchment area. He said they want to restore trees in all areas that were heavily degraded.

"We have destroyed our local forests and rivers here and now we are facing the consequences among them unreliable rains, scorching sun and heavy soil erosion and this is the reason we have established nurseries to raise seedlings in preparation for the tree planting season," said Saliya.

Supervisor of Nakuzale catchment area Mary Jonas told Zodiak Online that inadequate Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) is putting the lives of the participants at risk of either sustaining injuries or contracting waterborne diseases.

Jonas also said the equipment they are using in the catchment area which has 553 participants is not adequate.
  
She said there are 319 men and the rest are women.

"As you can see, we also have the youth and persons with disabilities here," said Jonas.

Desk Officer for CS-EPWP at Mulanje District Council Michael Phiri said all the concerns raised are pertinent and he said the government is addressing them one after another.

Phiri said previously, the participants were working for 24 days and in cycles but now they are working in phases and the number of days has been increased to 30.

The implementation of the programme is continuous and the participants are now receiving K38, 000 up from K28, 000 and soon the wages will be raised to K48, 000, said Phiri.

On PPEs and tools for the works, this is what Phiri said, "Each and every financial year budget, there is allocation for PPEs and tools, so we have the budget for this financial year and right now we are disbursing the resources to the catchment areas committees and procurement committees to purchase some tools and PPEs."   

He said one important thing the participants need to understand and embrace is the sustainable climate smart practice that includes environmental conservation and modern farming technologies and not the wages only.

According to Phiri, the district has 20, 834 participants working in 19 catchment areas and the activities are categorized into soil and water conservation, river and stream banks protection and forest establishments and management.

CS-EPWP is a component under the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP), a Malawi Government project funded by the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) facilitated by the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC).