BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
Lack of opportunities for refugees at the Tongogara Camp in Manicaland is forcing some of them to resort to poaching firewood at the Save Conservancy, a top official has said.
Tongogara, the biggest refugee camp, has over 14 000 immigrants and the number keeps growing.
Totamirepi Tirivavi, director of social development in the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry to a recent regional symposium on the impacts of climate change on humanitarian issues hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Victoria Falls that said there was need to come up with ways to assist the refugees instead of punishing them for poaching firewood.
“There is the issue of lack of employment opportunities so that these people can generate income and the main issue was when we had a cash crisis the government changed from giving them cash to rations yet they have other needs,” Tirivavi said.
“So, they end up selling charcoal so that they can buy other requirements and they cut down trees from Save Conservancy and other surroundings and that is one of the challenges that we are faced with.
“My view is that people should not be harassed for selling firewood or charcoal as they will be trying to survive, but instead, we should try to come up with a sustainable way for them to do that while we are mitigating issues of deforestation and air pollution.”
He said although there have been no reported cases of death due to human-wildlife conflicts, they had begun erecting a fence and solar streetlights to protect the refugees from wild animals.
“We are happy that from the beginning of this month they will be getting a monthly allowance of US$13 per head so that they will be able to buy from markets and this is good for the economy,” Tirivavi added.
“These wild animals have destroyed infrastructure and crops in their fields.
“We are happy that we got support from the Africa Development Bank of US$1.4million and we managed to erect streetlights for even women to freely move at night without fear of any gender-based violence.”
Most of the refugees are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.