By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, January 27, Mana: Lilongwe City Council (LCC) says it is targeting to plant about 100, 000 trees in Lilongwe city during this year's tree planting season.

Speaking on the side-lines of tree planting season launch by the city council which was held on Friday at Area 18 interchange, Mayor for Lilongwe city Richard Banda said that they want to plant more trees in order to fight some environmental problems that affect the city of Lilongwe.

“Some two years a go there were some floods in the city in areas like Chipasula and Mtandire just because we do not have enough trees along the river banks.

To avoid that, we want to plant trees mainly in the buffer zones, open spaces or even the recreational parks,” Banada said.

He therefore urged Lilongwe city residents to join the city council in planting and taking care of the trees in order to achieve its mission.

“Once the council comes to plant trees in the city, the residents do not help in taking care of the trees, some uproot the trees that have been planted in our city and even in our river banks that is why most river banks do not have enough trees.

For this reason, we would like to urge the residents that they need to support the city council in planting and taking care of the trees that have been planted in our city,” he said.

Lilongwe City Centre Member of Parliament, Alfred Jiya commended LCC for its commitment to plant more trees in Lilongwe city.

He encouraged the Lilongwe city residents to help in taking care of the newly planted trees in order to fully grow.

During the launch of the tree planting season, LCC and its partners namely; Malawi Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA), Department of Forestry, Global Landscape Forum (GLF)-Malawi Chapter and Green Girls Platform among others planted about 10, 000 trees at Area 18 interchange.