Ombudsman Martha Chizuma – Mwangonde recently led her staff in planting 1000 trees at Ngwangwa in Traditional Authority Mtema, Lilongwe. Speaking after planting the trees, she said the exercise was part of the office of the Ombudsman’s contribution towards creating a green and friendly environment for clients.
“The people that we impact most are those that live in rural areas. We owe it to these communities. Therefore, as an office, we mobilised ourselves to do this as one way of saying thank you,” she said. Two weeks ago, President Peter Mutharika launched the tree planting season in a push to conserve forests, soil and water.
The ombudsman appealed to the communities around Ngwangwa to take care of the trees to ensure that they survive. Group Village Headman Undi said the importance of trees to the environment cannot be overemphasised as they are a source of life. He lashed out at charcoal makers who have wiped out trees in the vast plain which is hugely degraded. He said bustling charcoal business is the major cause of deforestation in his area. He asked government and other stakeholders to find sustainable ways of addressing the energy crisis, especially persistent power blackouts and low access to electricity, which is fuelling deforestation.
According to the Department of Energy, 90 percent of people in the country have no electricity and 98 percent of the households use charcoal and firewood for cooking.
“We will continue working hand n hand with government to ensure that the environment is being conserved. As leaders, we have been put in place some measures to deal with charcoal producers but we need other stakeholders to help us in dealing with this,” he said. Undi asked other government departments and agencies to emulate the ombudsman’s offices in promoting restoration of the country’s waning tree cover.
Government plans to plant 60 million trees by April. After the exercise, the Ombudsman as a public protector conducted a rally to sensitise the communities to some of the duties of her office.
(Source: The Nation Malawi, 27th December 2018)