Malawi Institution of Engineers moves to save Kaning’ina forest

The North chapter of the Malawi Institution of Engineers (MIE) has adopted part of Kaning’ina forest to save the water source for the Northern Region Water Board.

The North chapter’s president Francis Gondwe said on Saturday when he led an initiative to plant 2000 trees in the forest that the engineers will also do the weeding and clearing of fire breaks to ensure that trees in the adopted portion grow well.

“As engineers, we are concerned with environmental issues. We depend on the environment for most of our work. For example, we need trees for electricity poles and bridges, water in construction works and others. So, we thought we should plant trees to conserve water and vegetation in this forest which is a water source for Northern Region Water Board,” said Gondwe.

NRWB environmental manager Lewis Banda, whose institution donated the seedlings to the engineers, thanked the engineers for considering planting trees in Kaning’ina forest where he said Lunyangwa dam, the source of water supply for the board, was facing high siltation and soil erosion.

“There is danger that we may have problems in supplying adequate water to Mzuzu city soon,” said Banda.