However while Belinda would have felt at ease upon getting her fuel wood, she usually faces another challenge upon her arrival at home; she has to travel another kilometre in search of portable water but this is not the end of the ordeal as water and fuel wood got, she has to think of where she will get her food.

Belinda who lives in a hand and mouth economic style with her 41 year old mother has to use all tedious means to get food for the day.

“We have been going without food reserves for some time, and we have been used to harvesting little food, “she discloses.

While Belinda and her mother are blaming the dry spell that hit their area the previous rainy season to work of magic, Emanuel Ngwangwa, District Forestry Officer for Neno is busy in his office strategizing with his field team on how they have to reverse the effects of climate change through sustainable land management.

Ngwangwa understands that the bad weather patterns have been a result of the careless degradation of the environment in the district, but for poor Belinda and her mother environmental degradation is part of their business. They have to manufacture charcoal or they will starve.

However Ngwangwa interlinks the social cultural problems in the district to environmental degradation which he says is happening at a very alarming rate in the district.

“People are carelessly cutting down trees in the district and as a result, we see that the rain patterns have been unpredictable,” he said.

Ngwangwa says the links of environmental degradation and disease is easily noticeable in Neno where young women are forced into sexual activity in exchange of gifts so that they can get the days food and later get exposed to HIV infection.

Ngwangwa however said the Project which his office is doing with his colleagues in the department of fisheries, the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of irrigation and water development tries to show the interlink-ages of environmental degradation and the social developmental burdens.

He said the five year program which is funded by the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environmental Fund aims to protect land along the shire basin that has already been faced with severe degradation.

“As the department of forestry we are looking at the root cause of the problems that are making people to cut down trees carelessly and in turn we are trying to demonstrate to the population that environmental degradation also badly affects the economic lives of the populations, “he said.

He said the program has a gender approach as environmental degradation has negatively impacted on the lives of women who usually are the custodians of a home.

He said because of environmental degradation the water table has gone down resulting into wells drying up and women travelling long distances to fetch water.

“Interestingly environmental degradation has also caused a number of domestic gender based violence as at times some men do not appreciate the long distances that their wives are travelling to get water or fire wood and in the end the end up quarrelling or even fighting, “he said.

District Fisheries Officer, Davie Itimu said the project incorporates all sectors so that people can understand how they all link up to the current problems being faced in society.

He said for instance a man would carelessly cut trees, and the end result would be the drying up of water sources where the people usually go fishing.

Interestingly however the money gained from the products of environmental degradation is what worries health planners in the district.

Edwin Polera, District Aids Coordinator for Neno said the just ended HIV Testing and Counselling week shows that there are still a number of new HIV infections and he linked some of the infections to the environmental degradation factor.

“A lot of young women are forced to go into risky sex so that they can get food for the day however this exposes them to HIV infection, “he said.

He said the out of the 8900 people that went for an HIV test the 120 people that tested positive were from areas that are facing the blunt of environmental degradation which he said was a clear indication that the two are linked.

He said 54 percent of the new infections were in women who usually suffer the blunt of environmental change and are forced to go into menial means including sex work to survive.

Meanwhile Neno has around 7800 people living with HIV and according to Neno District Hospital Environmental Officer Taonga Kasomekera; most of these PLHIVs face the challenge off accessing nutritious food as they cannot produce enough due to poor rain patterns.