Kasungu, March 8: National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) with financial assistance from Water Aid International has embarked on a water project aimed at empowering rural people to demand quality water from service providers.

The project dubbed ‘Sector Policy and Governance’ is to be implemented in the areas of Senior Chief Lukwa and Traditional Authority (TA) Wimbe in Kasungu on pilot basis targeting four Group Village Headmen in each area. 

District Civic Education Officer, Gerald Chirwa, disclosed this when he briefed the District Executive Committee (DEC) on the new project on Wednesday.

He said the main objective of the project is to facilitate citizen action initiative with the view to enable rural masses hold service providers accountable to them and ensure that they are transparent in their service provision.

“We want to see citizens that are able to engage service providers and demand their right to good sanitation. Most importantly, we want to see improved service delivery in the area of water and sanitation,” said Chirwa.

He clarified that the project will focus on advocacy other than providing hardware assistance to communities saying the goal is to civic-educate the rural people to realize their role in development.

He said all is set to roll out the project.

“All preparations have been concluded. As we speak staff has already been oriented and is ready to kick start the project,” said Chirwa.