By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Vice-President Dr Philip Mpango has called for increased public sensitization campaigns on the significance of planting trees and protecting the environment.
Dr Mpango made the call On Tuesday in Dodoma, where he directed the Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) to sensitize citizens to plant more trees to avert drought in the capital city.
The vice-president said the agency should educate the citizens regularly so that they could plant the right type of trees that would not harm water sources and damage buildings. Dr Mpango issued the directive yesterday when he visited and inspected a tree nursery established by the TFS and the Dodoma City Council at Medeli area.
Mpango also ordered the TFS to effectively collaborate with the Dodoma city authorities and his office to protect the tree nurseries. On the other hand, Dr Mpango directed relevant authorities to effectively manage traders conducting their activities alongside the city roads to ensure that they plant trees at their business places to beautify the Dodoma City and avert possible droughts.
“Use the existing laws in controlling people who degrade the environment, including those who burn forests,” Dr Mpango told the Dodoma city administration. He told environmental experts working under the environment department in his office to get out of their offices and go to the public to educate people on how to plant trees properly.
Mpango reminded that city planning must consider allocating lands for agricultural activities and areas for planting trees, warning that if all lands will be used for setting up buildings, it will cause drought.
Dr Mpango also visited a tree farm run by the TFS at Mailimbili area in the city, where he instructed the agency to ensure it produces more tree seedlings in order to increase pace of trees planting by citizens, noting that the government’s plan was to make the capital city green and the campaign is expected to change the appearance of the city from next year.
The tree planting drive to make Dodoma city green was launched in 2017. The campaign, dubbed ‘Make Dodoma Green’ is aimed at forcing individuals, public and private institutions owning huge chunks of land to plant trees. The programme is targeting to change Dodoma, which would then be replicated to other places in the country.
