By Newman Anthony Levey in Bo
The Bo City Council, in partnership with the Prince's Foundation, a charitable organization, has commenced a tree planting exercise designed to give a facelift to the Bo Reservation.
The exercise, according to officials, is part of the city authorities’ plan to transform Bo to a modern city to match with other cities around the world. Some 2, 000 trees are to be planted under the project.
The exercise is part of a larger project that entails the construction of bridges and culverts along the highway along Bo Reservation.
Bo Reservation is an area of the southern city that hosts government owned quarters housing government workers. But over the years private individuals have encroached into the space, built dwelling houses and opening business centers.
The area is also home to the Presidential Lodge.
Many people who recently bought lands in the area have been prevented from doing any construction work there, thanks to the intervention of the Ministry of Lands.
The council says it intends to convert it into a modernized urban town, fitted with social amenities like markets, a hospital, as well as places of worship - churches and mosques. The plan also includes preservation of wet lands within the area.
The tree planting exercise was launched on July 23 at the IPAM Campus Reservation, where the newly transferred Chief Administrator of the Council (CA), Mrs Veronica Josephine Fortune Bindi, called for collective participation to change the face of the city. She reiterated the Council’s determination to make Bo a major attraction, thereby contributing to the decongestion of Freetown. Mrs Bindi praised the Prince’s Foundation for their role in this endeavor.
"We want to be part of the solution in decongesting our capital city. We want to promote our local economic growth through urbanization and development,” she said, explaining further that their goal is also to get people engaging in tree planting, rather than leaving it in the hands of government.
“As we strengthen our stakeholders engagement at local level, we expect laws that will empower local councils to function well," she added.
The Prince’s Foundation, based in the UK is run by British nationals. The Foundation, according to the Council, has been working with it on the implementation of the Rapid Urban Planning Toolkit designed to help City Mayors and development practitioners create simple, robust and implementable urban framework plans that will protect existing and future citizens against negative impacts.
Bondi Nyama Gevao, Executive Chairman of the Environmental Protection Agency of Sierra Leone (EPASL), spoke on the importance of tree planting, citing the danger the country’s forest already faces with the cutting down of trees across the country. He said the situation has been complicated by climate change.
"On the 5th of last month, [President Julius Maada Bio] launched a national tree planting event at Motemeh. The goal was to plant five million trees in the next four years. Bo City Council is complimenting government's effort,” he said.
The Country Representative for the Prince's Foundation in Sierra Leone, Victor Nelson Williams, in his statement explained how the collaboration came about one year ago when he visited Bo.
Williams said Prince’s Foundation is helping many countries in the world by giving a facelift to their cities. He said in Sierra Leone they were working with councils in Bo and Makeni, noting that the Bo City Council is far ahead of Makeni.
Minister of Local government and Rural Development, Tamba Lamina, noted at the event that he had known the Prince’s Foundation for a very long time due to their work in providing support to developing countries.
"I see so many people are involved in this project, the likes of the Bo Kakua PC, and others. It is fine when many people come together and engage in development, because when people decide to bring development, they will own it,” he said.
Lamina also noted the existence of a healthy competition amongst councils in the country and said the new Local Council policy in the making will give more space for devolution.
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