Maseru, 12 August
ReNOKA celebrates women who are contributing to restoration of our natural resources in catchment areas
Subsistence vegetable farmer Me’ Mahali Bulanea from Likhetla-Mafeteng in south western Lesotho has taken the initiative and worked with her community to build a new dam on her farm. The water it stores is now used for irrigation and washing clothes.
Mahali is involved in many community initiatives and charity projects, and is founder of the ‘Together We Can’ cooperative with other passionate farmers contribute to each other’s businesses and become each other’s market.
Mahali is an active member of the Kolo community watershed team (CWT) and is enlightened about living in harmony with nature. She recycles plastic bottles to irrigate her plots and saves tin containers to plant seedlings.
“Since becoming a member of the CWT I realize I have a big role which requires me to be brave and patient to transfer knowledge to other community members,” she says.
Mahali is in discussions with field owners about sustainable farming and plans to return terracing to the fields to save them from being degraded into gullies.
ReNOKA (‘we are a river’) is a national programme and citizen movement for the restoration of land and water in Lesotho and the Orange-Senqu basin. Support for ReNOKA is provided through a partnership between the Government of Lesotho, the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The EU and BMZ contributions are implemented through a technical assistance project “Support to Integrated Catchment Management in Lesotho” by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
