Kafue River preservation starts
AN initiative aimed at enhancing catchment protection and sustainable resources use on Kafue River has been launched in Monze District, Southern Province.
Chief Hamusonde has thus pledged total support for the Lower Kafue River Basin health report card.
He said the basin report card was an important tool that would help to monitor the river systems and help reduce negative environmental impact mainly due to human activities.
River Basin Report Card is an assessment and communication product that compares ecological, social and economic information against predefined goals or objectives.
Similar to school report cards, River basin report provides performance driven numeric grades or letters that reflect the statues of a river basin on a regular basis.
The Lower Kafue River Basin is the first of its kind in Zambia and would serve as a baseline to measure change in future in response to management actions, inform policy And planning within the basin.
The traditional leader explained that his subjects were widely consulted and had an input in the formulation of the card.
Chief Hamusonde pointed out that the launch of the river basin report card would help change people’s mind-set to care for the environment through tree planting and enhance sustainable use of resources along the basin.
“The launch of the Lower
Kafue River Basin Health Report is an important step in our goal to restore the vitality of the River systems through good environmental management and sustainable use of scarce resources in the basin.
The traditional leader appealed to Government to seriously help the area in fighting bad environmental vices such rampant massive tree cutting.
He suggested that Government should introduce as punitive measures for those found wanting in indiscriminate tree cutting for charcoal.
The traditional leader however said that his subjects were ready to engage in alternative livelihoods such as gardening, goat rearing, bee- keeping among others.
Monze District Commissioner (DC), Munachoongo Muleya, urged the community to take the project seriously as it was aimed at improving their lives and that of their future generation.
She stressed the importance of preserving the Kafue River catchment from which half of the country’s population derive their livelihood.
The World Wide Fund for Nature- Zambia, (WWF)
The University of Maryland, and the Zambia Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA) and other stakeholders developed the Lower Kafue Basin Report Card.
WWF Representative
James Mbewe explained that water quality and quantity, landscape and ecology, economy, human health and nutrition were some of the indicators to ascertain the health status of the basin.