BY REUBEN OLITA
Linda Mazingira Initiative today led Kolanya Girls and Kolanya Boys Primary Schools/ Junior Secondary Schools pupils and students in tree planting exercise in a bid to improve tree cover in the county that currently stands at a paltry 2.1 percent.
The initiative, which is undertaking the exercise, in partnership with SSS10- Environmentsl Wing and the County Government of Busia, donated a total of 4,000 assorted tree seedlings with Kolanya
Girls benefiting from 2,500 seedlings and Kolanya Boys 1500. Its clarion call is ” Linda Mazingira Linda Maisha.”
Linda Mazinga Initiative Chief Executive Officer Patrick Ikwara said the exercise that started in April 2023 has so far planted 69,650 tree seedlings noting that they are targeting to plant 1million tree seedlings by 2027 with area of focus being learning institutions, churches, hilltops, wetlands and riverbanks.
“The main challenges we are facing is the community which engages in tree planting but fail to protect them. It is essential to grow tree seedlings if we intend to achieve President William Ruto’s target of 15 billion trees by 2032,” he said.
He urged residents of Busia County to make it a routine of planting tree seedlings during celebrations like birthday parties, graduation, or when civil servants retire, noting that said it might take 10 years for the County to realize the recommended 10 percent national target.
Ikwara lauded Deputy Governor, HE Arthur Odera, who is also the County Executive Committee Member for Water, Environment and Natural Resources, for planting 30,000 trees in his land saying having such projects will promote beekeeping in the county.
The CEO regretted that most Hills in Teso North are degraded, especially Moding, Aboloi, and Rwatama, thus the need to plant indigenous trees to reverse this worrying trend to help restore the ecosystem.
” Apart from tree protection and environment conservation, there is a need to embrace Adapt a tree program where primary school pupils take care of their tree seedlings until they leave school and hand them over to the head teacher. We shall reward those who protect their trees properly,” he said.
Kolanya Girls head teacher Miriam Osiya thanked the County Government through the Department of Water, Environment, and Natural Resources and Forestry for launching the program in her school, adding that they have endeavoured to conserve the environment, conserve trees and vegetation which is part of climate change mitigation measures.
” The school which started in 1953 has raised senior people at County and National level including Mrs Martha Ekirapa who is a senior officer in the Ministry of Education at Jogoo House and Mercy Imo, Chief Officer in the County Government of Busia under HE Dr Paul Otuoma for according their own to work in his government.
Mrs Osiya also thanked the national government through the Constituency Development Fund for constructing two classrooms for the 83 students of Junior Secondary School.
However, the head teacher cited water scarcity as a major challenge facing the learning institution for many years, which forces Girls to trek for long distance, urging the water executive to consider drilling water at the school.
” Since the advent of devolution, no construction of a single ECDE classroom has been executed at the school with the 74 pupils using two condemned classrooms to undertake their studies, urging the DG to come to their rescue and put the school in the situation it deserves.
The School Board of Management chairman Sammy Parasi thanked the county government for employing two ECDE teachers with urgent need for two ECDE classrooms. He said there was a need for an additional classroom for JJS students and a bigger laboratory for the same student, noting that the existing is small.
