Dowa District Council has asked the Department of Refugees in the Ministry of Homeland Security to participate in activities initiated to protect and conserve natural forests and soils around Dzaleka Refugee Camp.
The district’s Director of Human Resource and Administration, Thomas Mwafongo, lamented that hundreds of trees are cut down every day by refugees in and around the camp for cooking yet there have been no efforts by the department to address the environmental degradation.
Mwafongo made the sentiments on Wednesday during a tour of Dzaleka Refugee Camp the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) organized with financial support from the Canadian Embassy through the Umodzi Project.
“Kongwe Forest, for instance, is turning into a desert, yet there is dead silence from the department on what it plans to do to collaborate with the council and community members to restore the environment,” he lamented.
He said the council expected the department to take due diligence and be in the forefront in initiating programmes aimed at reforesting the camp and the surrounding area.
“We have accepted responsibility to host the refugees. But we expected the department to help us reduce pressure these refugees have heaped on the environment, specifically on the forests, in and around the camps by promoting the use of and making available improved cooking stoves, which require low-firewood consumption, among others,” stated Mwafongo.
Commissioner for Refugees in the Ministry of Homeland Security, General Ignancio Maulana, admitted that the relocation and influx of more refugees is reinforcing the already intense population pressure on the environment causing depletion of natural resources as well as soil health.
Maulana said his department has partnered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other organizations such as a German organization, Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH), to devise mechanisms for saving the remaining forests while restoring the degraded ones.
Maulana stated that the department and its partners are considering providing refugees and host community members with a safer and environmentally friendly household cooking solution.
In his remarks, CCJP Lilongwe Programme Officer Mwai Sandram said the Commission was impressed with the level of engagement the Umodzi Project has facilitated among key stakeholders in the refugee sector.
Sandram said the project, which the Canadian Embassy is financing to the tune of 50,000 Canadian dollars, is aimed at creating a platform for dialogue to enhance social-cohesion and peace building.
“We want to increase public and stakeholder awareness about the human rights issues and challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers,” he said.
Dzaleka Refugee Camp is currently hosting 53, 000 refugees against the initial holding capacity of not more than 14, 000, according to the Department of Refugees.
