Written by Sheila Nabafu
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), Mr. Alfred Okot Okidi, once stated that, “Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Environment and Climate Change Programmes contribute substantially to the national socio-economic development and yet are often taken for granted”.
It is therefore no wonder that together with his team, Mr. Okot Okidi led by example as the Ministry launched the first “National Tree Planting Day” at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, which witnessed vast support extended to the Ministry from various organisations, corporations and schools.
The initiative has been dubbed “ROOTS” (Running Out Of Trees) , under the theme *“Restoring Forests and Integrating Trees in our Degraded Landscapes” and the Ministry of Water and Environment through this initiative intends to plant at least 40Million trees every year for the next 10 years. It was held in Mbarara, Entebbe and Mbale.
The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) was quick to jump on this campaign with the agenda of fueling the “NWSC Green Tree-volution”, also a tree planting campaign that will see “at least” 10Million Trees planted by the year 2023 under the theme, “A Tree Planted, future Granted”.
Anchored on the NWSC Corporate Plan 2021 – 2026 and the Public Relations & Corporate Communications Action Plan 2021, the “NWSC Green Tree-volution” aims to take corrective measures to aid ecological sustainability and manage natural resources appropriately. In simple terms, save the environment.
Mr. Okot Okidi in his account stated that the “National Tree Planting Day” is simply fuel to the “ROOTs Campaign” and is bound to instigate the culture of Annual Tree Planting, in Ugandans all over the country since there is now a designated day for tree planting.
The Vice President of Uganda and Guest of Honor, H.E Jessica Alupo, lauded NWSC for its continued commitment to not only ensuring access to clean and safe water to all Ugandans, but also to nurturing the environment. She also appreciated all partners for their contribution towards tree planting and was clearly impressed by the uniqueness of the campaign since a lot of attention is given to trees from acquisition, planting, maturity and conservation.
The NWSC team was led by the Senior Manager Kampala Water Eastern Zone, Ms. Sarah Namuwenge who saw to it that NWSC made its mark in the first ever “National Tree Planting Day”.
Notably, the National Tree Planting Day partners include; MWE, NWSC, Uganda Breweries, UNFFE, NFA, UNHCR, KCCA, NEMA, Mt. Elgon Tree Growing Enterprises, Total Energies, EcoTrust, Tree Adoption, ATC Uganda, Obwakabaka Bwa Buganda, Stanbic Bank, NARO and, MAAIF
