A German conservationist living in Malindi has urged Kenyans to take advantage of the El Nino rains to plant more trees to increase forest cover in the country.
Silvia Pirelli, who has been conserving more than 20 acres of a forest in the Mere area along the Malindi Tsavo road called L’Magiro, said it is time people and the government took conservation seriously to protect the environment.
She said people should stop fearing El Nino rains and instead start preparing on the best way to harvest more water and plant as many trees as they can.
Speaking at her L’Magiro farm in Mere area, she wondered why a lot of people were worried because of the news being reported about a possible disaster due to El Nino rains.
“Let us not be afraid, Lets embrace it and say hey, finally some rain is coming let’s get ready. Get some gutters its not costly that much, people here can collect pipes and cut it into half and we can show them how to do it,” she said.
Pirelli also called on the government to help people collect water during the rains and save it to be used in the future and prepare seedlings to plant trees.
She said locals can plant trees such as Lucina type which grow fast and they can use them as firewood.
At the same time, the conservationist also raised concern over residents who dump diapers along drainage trenches.
Normally she said, people take diapers from their homes and throw them in the drainage systems along the road which end up blocking drainages during rains.
“When they are filled up and it rains, crawls will pick them and dump them all over which will be a health hazard and this can lead to Cholera,” she said.
She also called on the government to repair roads at the Malindi Main roundabout saying it was in bad state.
The conservationist said Mombasa cement beautified the roundabout area with good statutes of wild animals but the road is in bad shape.
Sidi Katana a resident of Kwa Upanga who works at L’Magiro said they use the knowledge they learnt from the conservationist to sensitise residents about El Nino rains.
So far, she said even though people have heard about the rains causing disaster, most people do not even know what El Nino is, hence need for them to sensitise residents on the importance of preparing well ahead of the rains.
“We tell the community members to prepare storage facilities and harvest water during the ElNino rains,” she said.
Katana also said they are encouraging people to take advantage of the rains to plant more trees and cover the areas where many trees were destroyed.
Charo Tamaa a resident of Kwa Upanga also said they are already preparing to plant as many trees as they can during the El Nino.