In a bid to boost forest cover and embellish the main roads of the fast-growing Hola town, Hola municipality has conceptualized a program dubbed Green Tana.
The project has engaged 1070 youths taking care of 10,700 neem trees; each worker is in charge of ten trees. Supervisors of the project ensure the trees are watered every morning and evening and weeds are removed.
The youths work for three months on contractual terms to allow all the vulnerable residents to earn a living. They are receiving Sh7240 monthly working for two hours daily.
Hola Municipality Manager Jacob Jara says the project was necessitated by global warming which is a real phenomenon and the outbreak of COVID-19 whose containment measures led to job losses.
He said the solution to global warming is “to have as many trees as possible. If every homestead will in a year raise at least five trees we will be heading somewhere.’’
“The greening program was informed by the outbreak of Coronavirus which affected several businesses, followed by the cry from the women, youth, and persons with disabilities on the decline in employment,’’ said the manager.
He went on: “We as a government discontinued all contracts designed to benefit very few individuals who were pocketing money through cleaning programs and rather came up with the idea of managing government programs on our own by engaging the disadvantaged groups”.
The municipality plans to partner with Tana River Water and Sanitation Company (TAWASCO) to procure 10,000 liters of water tanks and place them along the roads. TAWASCO will ensure the tanks are filled with water and the workers do the watering.
By Sadik Hassan
