Sat, 20 Jan 2018 13:07:51 +0000
By ANDREW MUKOMA
A TRADIDTIONAL leader in Kazungula District of Southern Province has asked government through the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Environmental Protection to completely ban charcoal burning in his chiefdom.
Chief Nyawa of the Toka-leya speaking people has charged the current rate at which his subjects were cutting down trees for charcoal is worrying, adding that something ought to be done.
The chief said that he is willing to work with government to ensure the indiscriminate cutting down of trees for charcoal comes to an end.
In an interview with the Daily Nation at his palace in Nyawa on Thursday, the traditional leader said that culprits of charcoal burning should be prosecuted.
“The challenge that I want the government to tackle is the issue of deforestation in my chiefdom. Deforestation should not be encouraged; Southern Province will soon be declared a desert because of that,” he said.
Chief Nyawa said that once the province is declared a desert, even the pattern of rainfall which has always favored the province will reduce and that will result in poor yields, consequently hunger will strike.
“I want to work with the government of the day to stop these charcoal burner. These charcoal burners are even supported by other people. They burn charcoal throughout their lives.
“I would like to call on the government of the day to work with me here to stop these charcoal burners. My proposal is that if possible whenever they are found, they must be arrested together with transporters of charcoal because transporters are from town. I wish those vehicles used to transport charcoal can be forfeited to the state and this will discourage transporters from ferrying charcoal to town,” he said.
And Water, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Minister Lloyd Kaziya said that government is equally concerned with the indiscriminate cutting down of trees for charcoal.
Mr. Kaziya said that very soon, government will come up with a Statutory Instrument (SI) to start prosecuting offenders.
“What the chief has alluded to is a very serious and important issue. I raised these issues when I was giving a ministerial statement in parliament last year. We are going to have serious problems as a country if we are not careful. I have always said that as a country, we depend on the moisture from Congo forest for our rainfall pattern,” he said.
“As a country, we are losing more than 250, 000 hectares of trees through deforestation caused by the indiscriminate cutting down of trees and that is affecting our rainfall patterns because we do not have enough trees. We are concerned with in future as government,” he said.
