Rotary plants 500 trees, moves against environmental hazards

Rotary Club of Kakuri has planted 500 economic trees along Patrick Yakowa Way in Kamazou, Chikun local government of Kaduna state to serve as food and shield the area from erosion and other environmental hazards.

The 500 economic trees planted on a 3km-stretch on both sides of the road, with the technical support of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, are to serve purposes of food, medicinal, ornamental and protecting the environment.

The district governor, District 9125, Rotarian Ayoola Oyedokun, told Blueprint during the tree-planting exercise in Kaduna Friday that apart from planting commercial trees, Rotary also planned to address erosion and flooding by eliminating dumping of water sachet, polythene bags, plastic containers and other biodegradable materials in drains and on the road.

He said, “We are launching the tree planting campaign of Rotary Club of Kakuri and supporting the environment as one of the areas of focus in which we carry out projects in Rotary Club. We are planting minimum of 500 economic trees at a start which would be increasing annually around this Kamazou location to help protect the environment. This is an open environment area so the trees would help support the environment.

“We are also looking at eliminating the constant dumping of waste in the drains. If you look around, you see litters of sachet water container, plastic bottles, polythene bags, plastic containers, we want to help reduce the waste dump. This is to help reduce hazards of biodegradable materials as well as curb erosion and flooding. We also want to help households to convert to solar energy, to power their lighting and water with solar.”

President Rotary Club of Kakuri Rotarian Abubakar Yakubu said the tree-planting exercise “is just the beginning,” adding that there were other programmes lined up in the new Rotary year.