KAMPALA – The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has commended delegates of the just-concluded Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) for contributing to environmental conservation in Uganda through tree planting.
“Last week we had several delegates from many Commonwealth countries and as part of their contribution to environmental enhancement, they planted 1630 trees: 1500 in Busoga region, 60 in Kampala at Gaba, 70 at the equator,” said Kadaga
Kadaga made these remarks while officiating at a climate change workshop organized by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on Monday 30, 2019 at Sheraton Hotel.
She said that this gesture by CPC delegates should awaken the country which she said is ‘sleeping’ on many issues of climate change. She said she was concerned that the rampant mudslides in Manafwa and Bududa districts have not received the proper response “whenever there is serious rain in Bududa and Manafwa, there are mudslides, people die, homes are buried, it is a known cycle but it keeps happening”
Kadaga asked government to operationalize the national tree planting days and put in place the tree fund as provided in the law “I have been asking government about the national tree planting day so that everybody in Uganda will wake up knowing that on Tuesday 1st of October, all of us are planting trees, but it hasn’t been done yet it is in our law” Kadaga said
She committed Parliament’s support to climate change and welcomed delegates attending the UNFCCC workshop to a plenary session where Parliament will receive and debate on a petition by over 5000 youth in Uganda over pressing climate change issues affecting the country.
