29/11/2025
The Chipembele Club at Namwala Secondary School wishes to strategically position itself as a School Environmental Hub by interlinking these four core functions:
1. Biogas Production supported by RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AUTHORITY: The club wishes to attach itself to the new and existing biogas digester using livestock waste (readily available at Namwala Secondary School) and organic waste from the school's kraal. This provides clean, renewable cooking fuel, reducing deforestation for firewood. The nutrient-rich slurry byproduct will be used as organic fertilizer for production unit gardens and orchard.
2. Tree Planting Program supported by WWF ZAMBIA, Johannes van der Weijden and MAONDE FAMILY: The club has continued to plant trees specializing in indigenous and exotic shade trees. These trees will be used for school afforestation, creating carbon sinks, preventing soil erosion, and providing shade especially duringthe dry season (climate adaptation). Survival rates of these trees has largely been influenced by rainfall and temperature data from the meteorological department fed by our on-site weather station.
3. On-Site Weather Station supported by ZAMBIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT: The club's weather station is a vital data collection point. Going forward, students will monitor rainfall patterns, temperature fluctuations, and extreme weather events. This data will directly inform climate-smart decisions: when to plant trees for the highest survival, analyzing local climate trends, and correlating weather events with the health of the plants.
4. Kafue River Water Quality Monitoring supported by WWF ZAMBIA: The club conduct regular, structured testing of the Kafue River for key indicators like turbidity, pH, and nitrate levels. They investigate how pollution from run-off (linked to weather data on heavy rains) and lower water levels (linked to drought data) impacts the freshwater ecosystem.
This integrated model creates a powerful feedback loop. For example, erratic rainfall (Weather Station) leads to low river levels (Water Monitoring), highlighting the need for water-retaining trees (Tree Planting), whose growth is aided by biogas slurry (Biogas). Students are therefore the frontline custodians of their environment. We believe this model will help develop a climate smart conscious learner.
