Kenya Water Towers Authority Chairperson Dr Isaac Kalua said that the country needs to plant 360 million trees every year for five years to achieve the 10 per cent forest cover/CFM NEWS
MOMBASA, Kenya, Nov 7 – There is great need for government and private agencies to change the strategy on how they can lure Kenyans to plant more trees.
Kenya Water Towers Authority Chairperson Dr Isaac Kalua said that the country needs to plant 360 million trees every year for five years to achieve the 10 per cent forest cover.
However, this will not be achieved because Kenyans do not see the benefits of those trees.
Therefore, government should now change strategy and urge Kenyans to plant fruit trees or any other type of tree with financial benefit to them.
“We need to be change strategy and be solution providers. Plant trees for fruits or beneficial to the community,” he said.
He said Kenyans should plant more seedlings and sell to the government at minimum cost of Sh20 per seedling, which translates to Sh7.2 billion for the 360 million seedling per year.
According to Kalua, each county government needs to plant 7.9 million trees annually.
He was speaking during a tree planting event at Shanzu Teachers Training College in Mombasa.
At the Coast, Lamu County has the largest forest cover of 33.9 per cent, Kilifi 7.6 per cent, Tana River has 6.21 per cent, Kwale 5.44 per cent, Mombasa has 5.21 per cent and Lastly Taita Taveta has 3.63 per cent.
Kalua also said the national government, through the Ministry of Water, will revive all stalled boreholes project countrywide to ease pressure on the water catchment areas.
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