Deforestation: Kaduna to plant 1.5 million trees

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has announced that the State will soon embark on a tree planting exercise to curb deforestation. The governor who spoke at an event to mark the 2016 World Environmental Day said that a total of 1.5 million trees will be planted in the state during the exercise.

The Governor urged people of the state to imbibe the culture of keeping their environment clean and always avoid cutting down trees across the state.

He expressed dismay with the poor attitude of people in cleaning up their environment and the increased rate of deforestation in the state, stating that such attitude pose a great danger to the environment.

He pointed out that government had good policies and programmes that would set standards for the environment, and that they would continue to carry out campaigns to ensure it achieves the desired objective in that regard.

Governor El-Rufai also announced that the state government would collaborate with the Federal Government to dredge River Kaduna for better utilisation.

Earlier, the state’s Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Shehu Balarabe, said that various awareness programmes have been put in place to educate people on the importance of keeping their environment clean.

High point of the event was the cleaning up exercise by the Governor and other top government officials, symbolic tree planting and presentation of awards to schools for keeping their environment tidy.