West Pokot County government departments are being encouraged to increase tree cover to mitigate the impact of floods and other environmental hazards.
Governor Simon Kachapin who launched 122,000 tree seedlings for the long rains tree planting at the Ministry of Water, Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change tree nursery said trees are very essential in reducing the effects of climate change.
Kachapin directed all the departments to plant trees on their compounds for environmental conservation and aesthetic value.
During the launch, the ministry aforementioned distributed 5000 tree seedlings to every department to be planted in order to create green spaces within county departments and public land available.
The Governor also urged residents to continue planting indigenous trees saying they help in conserving water catchment areas. “When we are planting trees we should ensure that we plant indigenous trees on water catchment areas because they help in water conservation,” said Kachapin.
He explained that climate change being experienced is as a result of indiscriminate cutting down of trees for charcoal burning and construction purposes and appealed to residents living in water catchment areas to move from such places since they cannot fight against nature.
“I want to ask everybody who is living in water catchment areas and other public land to move away from those places. My office will collaborate with the national government and other stakeholders to make sure those adamant move away,” maintained the governor.
He also urged residents to embrace planting bamboo trees which he noted help in absorbing high carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases to mitigate climate change. He said the current floods can be linked to the destruction of the ozone layer.
“The disaster of floods that we are experiencing is because the ozone layer has been destroyed by the greenhouse gases and atmospheric pressure that is high,” he claimed.
By Richard Muhambe and Erickson Kiprotich
