A MILLION TREES IN MEMORY OF ATING’A

Feb 02, 2015 Editor Kisumu News News, Regional 0

More than a million trees will be planted in Migori County in the next five months in an ambitious program that will be led by Governor Okoth Obado.

The Governor said the County Government will strive to provide seedlings towards the A Million Trees Program to all institutions in the region saying it would be the key to achieving the national target of 10 percent forest cover in the area.

He said school kids and public officers will participate in institutional campaigns of planting trees while individual citizens of the county will be given free seedlings to plant in their shambas.

According to the leader, the A Million Trees Program is set to be launched as soon as the season for long rains starts.

Obado made the declaration at Omware village in Rongo Sub-County during the funeral of his Executive Member in charge of Environment, Natural Resources and Disaster Preparedness Dr. Polycarp Ating’a.

The Executive Member died at his home in Ranen after a short illness. Obado vowed to ensure the legacy which the late Ating’a had already founded of planting more than 5 million trees in Migori County is realized.

He said the A Million Trees planting initiative that had been started by the fallen minister was a very noble movement which his government would work hard to exemplify especially owing to the kind of zeal with which Dr. Ating’a had.

According to the Governor, the county has been ranked amongst the top performing devolved units in terms of improving forest cover across the country. He urged teachers to teach environmental conservation virtues to school children as a strategy towards achieving the long term Afforestation objective.