Bwaila Rotary Club pledges to conserve environment

MALAWI: The Rotary Club of Bwaila has pledged to take part in conserving the environment in the country by conducting annual tree planting exercises.

Speaking on the sidelines of the tree planting exercise which was organized by the club at the Malingunde catchment area in Lilongwe on Saturday, the club’s President, Dr. Richard Dilawo said that the pledge is one way of fulfilling one of the main pillars for their club.

“As Rotary Club of Bwaila we commit to conserving the environment to fulfill one of our areas of focus and tree planting exercise is in line with that, hence we will be planting trees every year and we are looking forward to planting more and more trees in the country,” Dilawo said.

He added that they will be regularly visiting the places where they have planted the trees to monitor the trees so that should survive.

“We will be engaging the community members in the areas where we have planted the trees to help us take care of the trees.

“On top of that as a club we will be finding time during the year to visit our plots where we have planted the trees to check the growth of the trees and also address the problems affecting the trees,” he said.

Last year, Bwaila Rotary Club planted about 1000 trees at the catchment area of Malingunde and this year the club has planted 3000 trees at the same catchment area.

The area is owned by Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) and it is where Kamuzu one dam is located in one of the dams LWB sources its water which is supplied to Lilongwe city residents for consumption and other purposes.

Bwaila Rotary Club Director of Projects, Gabriel Kapanda said that this year they invested about K500, 000 to successfully plant the trees in the area.

In his comment, one of the country’s environmental activists, Mathews Malata commended Bwaila Rotary Club for taking part in conserving the environment in the country.

“Government alone cannot manage to plant trees to cover up the required target of planting about 61 million trees within the year in the country, hence there is need of private sectors to come in and support the initiative.

“Therefore, I would like to commend Bwaila Rotary Club for showing commitment in taking part in conserving the environment by planting trees, however, I am encouraging them to take serious care of the trees to survive,” Malata said.