By: Problyn John Alpha
The focal person for Ministry of Environment in Kono District Mohamed Sisorkor has confirmed that the erection of structures in wet lands is on the increase in the District. He made the statement when giving an update on the operations of the ministry in the maiden Council meeting of the 5th Council of the Kono District Council at D O Barracks in Koidu City Kono District on Thursday 14th September 2023.
Sisorkor said the habit of constructing structures in wet lands is prawn to flooding and therefore discouraged the said habit by some members of the society. He further seized the opportunity to describe Environment as land, sea, living and no living things, noting their fundamental responsibility is to ensure that the environment is healthy for the coexistence of both human beings and animals.
He intimated the audience that the Ministry of Environment under its forestation program through the National tree planting project with the aim of planting at least one million trees across the country has allocated about one hundred and twenty five thousand seedlings to the district.
According to him for the said seedlings to be judiciously used the ministry has hired two sets of people or groups to supply and plant the above mentioned seedlings. The focal person Ministry of Environment told the audience that under the month of review the ministry only received one quarterly support which he described as very small adding the support was used to implement nursery in two chiefdoms in the District Gbense and Nimiyama.
He disclosed plans by the ministry to effect plantation establishment site identification and those sites have already been brushed. Speaking about the challenges faced by the ministry in Kono district Mohamed Sisorkor noted that most of the mining companies in the District do violate the ministry’s policy on planting trees in mined out areas, lack of mobility and office space noting the ministry is presently occupying a single room at the ministry of Agriculture to run it affairs in the District.
Meanwhile, when contacted on the allegation of the mining companies violating the ministry’s policy of planting trees in mined out areas the different Community Affairs managers of mining companies in the district denied the allegation .They said the problem with some MDAs is that they work in isolation and as a result they are not abreast with each other’s operations.