Nathana thrives with irrigation scheme to combat climate change effects
“We have solar power that helps us to pump water to the plots we have in the scheme”, he explained.
He says before the coming in of the scheme, most of the people were destroying the tress for charcoal.
“When you look around you will notice that trees are just trying to grow again since we had to cut them down and make charcoal. We had nowhere to rely on to find food and other needs for our families,” he said.
The idea of coming up with the irrigation scheme was brought in by Churches Action in Relief and Development which is a partner of Norwegian Church Aid/DanChurchAid.
Communities were sensitized on how the scheme will be operating and its benefits which among them was adapting to the effects of climate change.
He added that, “Of course we knew the consequences of cutting down tress for charcoal but we did not have any choice to find means for our family to have the necessities.
He said the scheme is helping them to be resilient and adapt to the effects of climate change such as drought since they are planting crops through irrigation.
Although this is the case, the chairperson wishes that the scheme should have extra solar panels for the scheme to accommodate more people who are willing to join since they are unable to join now due to inadequate solar power; an additional of the same amount of solar panels that are already available could help more in having the remaining communities be part of the scheme.
One of the members of the scheme Bettie Piliyodi said she is benefiting alot from the scheme where she is planting crops such as maize, vegetables and tomatoes both for commercial and subsistence purposes.
She said through the scheme, she managed to buy a motorbike, nine goats and managed to pay school fees for her son who is in secondary school.
“Before the scheme came in, I used to burn charcoal as my source of income though it was still not enough to meet the needs of my family but now I am able to have food throughout the year,” she explained.
108 hectares of land were assigned for a scheme but only 9 hectares are in operation due to inadequate solar power.
The scheme which is operating using 110 solar panels, has 105 plots occupying 9 hectares and is currently accommodating 110 people.
