Soil erosion still the main challenge in Nyabihu-district officials

WESTERN PROVINCE NYABIHU — The officer in charge of lands, environment and urban planning in Nyabihu district, Alex Birasa, has said that soil erosion is still the main challenge facing Nyabihu district due to the elevated nature of its landscape. Birasa was speaking recently in a meeting that brought together officials from Nyabihu district to discuss ways that could be used to protect the environment. He called upon residents to do every thing possible to protect the fertile volcanic soils in Nyabihu hills from being washed away by running water. He called upon local and opinion leaders to always encourage residents to dig terraces and strive to avoid over grazing of cattle on the elevated hills which he said could also result in soil erosion. “Our district is adopting the zero-grazing method to help us fight against the erosion, we are currently educating our residents on the importance’s of zero grazing.Many have adopted it which we hope will soon reduce the erosion rates,” he said. Nyabihu is one of the districts that have faced environmental degradation due to erosion. Ends