A green village is set to be constructed in Nyabihu District to shelter 200 homeless families that were evicted from high risk zones.

The Rwf1.6 billion village will be constructed by a project called ‘Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change in north-western Rwanda through Community Based Adaptation (RV3CBA), under the ministry of Infrastructure.

It will be constructed in Kabyaza Cell in Mukamira Sector.

During a national steering committee meeting on the planned project, last week, Prince Ngabonziza, the coordinator of RV3CBA, said the green village is one of several projects in response to climate change.

"We have achieved several things in the past six months of our operations such as grouping people in cooperatives, making progressive and radical terraces, sustaining river banks by planting trees on the shores among others. The green village will be a model for climate change resilience. There will be rain water harvesting infrastructure, greening and use of bio-gas to hold back carbon emission,” he said.

Angelle Mukaminani, the Nyabihu vice mayor for economic development, said the project was a welcome move since the district is prone to disaster.

Nyabihu is among the districts that are prone to climate change hazards like flooding and landslides. For instance, in 2008, many people lost lives in Gishwati in a landslide that destroyed several households.

"We are glad that the project will help to shelter our people and we laud its contribution toward fighting erosion as terraces have been put on over 150 hectares in our district,” Mukaminani said.

Two hundred houses will be built in the village and installed with solar energy.

All the 200 families that will be sheltered in the village will be given cows that will be reared in common cowsheds to feed the bio-gas energy generation.

A unit of 30 households will benefit from one bio-gas tank for cooking.

Addressing climate change

Dr Emmanuel Nkurunziza, the director general Rwanda Natural Resources Authority (RNRA), said there is hope that the project will address the problem of climate change vulnerability in the volcanic region in the near future.

"The project aims at increasing the adaptive capacity of natural systems and rural communities living in exposed areas of north-western Rwanda to climate change impacts. We hope the project will help us to address factors that exacerbate the effects of intense rainfall and lead to flooding and landslides,” Dr Nkurunziza said.

The project is expected to restore the ecosystem functions necessary to reduce the incidence and harshness of flooding and landslides on local communities and resources, he added.

This will be through introducing erosion and flood control measures, building the capacity of farmers to adapt to climate unpredictability and supporting the development of off-farm livelihoods to reduce the pressure on natural resources.

The RV3CBA project operates in seven sectors of Nyabihu District and one sector of Musanze District, which were the most affected by climate change effects in June 2014.

The project will run for four years. Apart from the green village in Nyabihu, the 2015 action plan will be focusing on resettling 30 families of Mugogo flooded low land in Musanze, sustaining river banks in Nyabihu, making radical and progressive terraces, training farmers in improved farming practices, and restoration and protection of steep slopes through improved flood control, soil, land and water management measures.

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