Karonga district fisheries officer William Chirwa has challenged grievances redress mechanism (GRM) committee members in the district’s five beach village committees (BVCs) to be professional when addressing complaints from the community.
The official made the call on Friday at Ngara BVC during capacity building for Mwilang’ombe GRM Committee to equip them with skills of resolving conflicts for smooth implementation of the government-funded sanitation and hygiene project.
Chirwa said: “The capacity building of area GRM committees will help them to handle complaints from the community about the contractors who will be constructing these assets before those grievances reach the district GRM committees which are also fully trained”.
In an interview, Ngara BVC chairperson Lexcol Mbale said the training provided an insight on how they can handle various conflicts for the smooth implementation of the project to deal with waterborne diseases in the lakeshore district.
“We have been drilled on how to handle various issues so that together we can monitor the project. We need strong and long lasting structures to enhance sanitation,” he said.
This project scope includes provision of potable water through drilling of boreholes, construction of shelters for drying fish, waiting shelters for buyers, toilets, ice plants and fish storage facilities.
The Department of Fisheries with funding from African Development Bank is implementing the Sustainable Capture Fisheries Aquaculture Development for Watershed Management Project at Chilumba, Ngara, Mlare, Chipamila and Kaporo in the district.
