A project from the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi has won a $25,000 prize in the Elsevier Foundation Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge, according to PR Newswire. The award, announced on May 26 at the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference in Dresden, Germany, recognised Milemo Lusambya, founder of the community group Let's Be Transformed. The initiative was selected from 285 proposals for developing practical chemistry methods to address deforestation and energy poverty in local communities. A researcher from Sri Lanka also received a matching award during the event.
In Nkhotakota district, youth in Chiwaula village have shifted from illegal charcoal production to manufacturing alternative fuel briquettes to help reduce deforestation, AfricaBrief reports. The Chiwaula Youth Club is producing the briquettes from agricultural waste such as maize husks, cassava peels, and groundnut shells. Supported by the Youth Action for Green Agro-enterprise project, the group generated over 600,000 kwacha in sales between February and May. To further protect local forests, the village has also implemented bylaws requiring each household to plant at least 100 trees annually.
Meanwhile, the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services has forecasted occasionally windy and partly cloudy conditions with a chance of showers over lakeshore areas for May 27. The department stated that a moist southeasterly air mass is bringing cool early morning temperatures across the region.