Improving Community Resilience Through Increased Water Supply and Food Security Project

Nsanje District is highly affected with the negative impacts of climate change, as it regularly experiences droughts and floods. People have become more vulnerable and their capacity to produce food and access water has become a daily concern. Women, most burdened by collection of water and providing food, are the most effected. .

With funding from the Scottish government through Christian Aid, CEPA in partnership with CARD and Bluezone implemented an eighteen-month project to address issues of food insecurity and water scarcity in two Nsanje Traditional Authorities' areas. The project aimed to increase availability and access to safe and potable water for 1,500 households and to increase agricultural production through small scale irrigation to 400 households through rights-based, participatory and inclusive approaches to water resources management.

CEPA’s role in the project was to strengthen community participation in water management by building the capacity of water point committees to advocate, represent community interests and rights in district planning water planning processes and support communities to develop and implement water resources protection plans alongside contingency plans. The project commenced in October 2014 and phased out in June 2016.