Get Involved

You want to make a history and leave legacy? You want to contribute towards creating a green environment and improve communities? This is the easy and simple thing you can do now.

Share this kmalesotho.blogspot.com with your enemies, friends, workmates, families and anybody you know.

Get your hands dirty at CGEI

As a fun for this blog comment here

Safe drinking water for Semonkong rural communities

The majority of people in Semonkong area are without access to safe drinking water. These people, mainly women and girls, have to walk a long distance to collect water from unprotected streams, springs and earth dams. Diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery are common within this community, particularly in children under the age of five years.

To address this, Katleho.Moho Association (KMA) constructed gravity-fed water supply systems to provide safe drinking water in three villages. In parallel KMA provided health education on clean water, sanitation and hygiene practices through community gatherings. In addition, formal training workshops on basic leadership skills and managing maintenance and repair of the systems were also held.

Communities provided in-kind contribution to meet unskilled labour needs supporting construction activities throughout the project such as trench digging to lay pipes and stone cutting. Each community also established a fund for future system maintenances and repairs.

Upon completion distances required to carry water were significantly reduced particularly benefitting women and girls. Health centres reported reduced incidences of diarrhoeal disease outbreak. Improved access to water created other livelihood supporting opportunities enabling irrigation for homestead gardening.

Theme linkages

Climate change adaptation

 Protection of springs sources and use of pipes throughout the systems reduced contamination from intense rainfall events and soil erosion.

Improved health and wellbeing

Drinking safe water and hygienic practices reduced diarrhoeal diseases outbreaks. Getting water at considerable distance prevented health effects of women carrying heavy loads of water over long distances.

Good governance

Department of Rural Water Supply recorded completed system as government achievement to its water policy.

Contribution to Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

Target 4a: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five

Farmers Seed Fairs



Ex situ conservation

In Lesotho individual farmers had limited varieties of specific crops and were thus more vulnerable to crop failure. Some farmers were using less nutritious varieties exacerbating existing malnutrition problems.

Katleho ‘Moho Association (KMA) together with farmers organised a series of seed fairs in three selected districts in Lesotho. Smallholder farmers displayed and traded a wide range of cereal, legume and vegetable seeds. People from government departments, local councils, non-government organisations, traders and media also participated.

Follow-up surveys were used to assess increases in income and crop diversity in smallholder farms.Individual farmers found from the seed fairs that there was a greater variety of seed available than previously known, and that some varieties they thought were extinct, were still in fact available. In addition, farmers were able to share experience of farming techniques and identified wider market opportunities.

Theme linkages

Climate change adaptation
Increased genetic diversity reducing risk of crop failure under increased environmental stress.

Improved health and wellbeing
Greater food security, increased productivity and improved nutrition reduce cases of malnutrition, hunger and mortality rates, particularly child mortality.

Good governance
Promoted cooperation and integrated farmers experience into government research and policy development.

Contribution to Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)
Target 1.C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
Target 7.A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Target 4.A: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate