Muhanga residents tipped on environmental protection

There is need for concerted efforts to protect the environment, an official from Rwanda Environment Management Authority (Rema) has said. Dr Rose Mukankomeje, the Rema director-general, was speaking during an event to donate 27 cows to residents of Rugendabali Sector, Muhanga District, Southern Province, on Thursday. The donation was from Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project Phase Two (LVEMP II) in partnership with the Muhanga district leadership. “We must strive to make our environment safer,” she said. “By donating these cows to residents, we are giving them a chance to improve their livelihoods. Beneficiaries should look after them well. It is also a call for them to continue protecting the environment because without a sustainable and safe environment, the productivity of these animals will be low,” Mukankomeje said. The beneficiaries were chosen among those who own land in Rugendabali in an area where, under LVEMP II interventions, radical terraces were created as part of efforts to protect the local environment and increase agriculture productivity. As part of the first phase of Nyabarongo Sub-catchment Rehabilitation sub-project, LVEMP II has created radical terraces on 25 hectares and progressive terraces on 75 hectares of land. The project is set to enter its second phase which will see more activities geared at rehabilitating the watershed of Nyabarongo. This time, bamboo trees will be planted along river banks on 35 hectares of land. Thursday’s donation is part of LVEMP II efforts to contribute toward the improvement of the livelihoods of residents living in targeted areas. “It is also part of our contribution to the One-Cow per Family, a government programme that supports the poorest individuals in the community by giving them cows to help transform their lives,” officials said in a statement. The cows will provide manure that will be used to boost soil fertility in the terraces, thus increasing food productivity. They will also provide milk to improve the nutrition of beneficiaries. It is expected that once the cows start delivering, the beneficiaries will pass on the heifers to other members of the community, thus impacting the lives of many individuals. LVEMP II is a regional project implemented in the five partner states of the East African Community (Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) which aims at improving environmental management of selected degraded sub-catchments for the benefit of communities that depend on the natural resources of the Lake Victoria Basin. In Rwanda, LVEMP II is implemented under Rema. The project aims at improving the management of the trans-boundary natural resources of the Lake Victoria Basin among the partner states and improvement of the environmental management of targeted pollution hotspots.

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Muhanga residents tipped on environmental protection