By Joe Dinga Pefok
Douala Urban Council has launched a campaign to plant some 10,000 trees of different species in selected sites across the city before the end of this year.
The funds for project are expected to be raised through financial contributions from the public, which include enterprises.Wouri SDO, Bernard Atebede, launched the project on June 23, which was immediately followed by a tree planting week which ran from June 23-28.
Teams of council workers trained for the operation planted hundreds of trees during that week.Another tree planting week will run from December 8-13. However, the Douala Urban Council Government Delegate, Dr. Fritz Ntone Ntone, has stated that the project will run non-stop throughout the year.
The selected sites include some street sides, the middle of some boulevards, around some major road junctions, leisure parks and council forests, among others.Different species of trees have been chosen to suit the different sites.
On the side lines, is a smaller project to plant flowers at major roundabouts as well as leisure parks across the city.
Campaign To Beautify Douala
Ntone Ntone explained that the projects to plant the trees and flowers across Douala fall within the diversified campaign to beautify the city.He said the projects were also within the council's vast programme on hygiene and sanitation.
Ntone Ntone argued that if the council is asking the population to contribute funds for the tree project, it is not because the council cannot raise the money, but rather because it is the civic responsibility of a population to develop their town or municipality.
He said when the public contributes to a development project, it would naturally feel more committed to protect it.The Government Delegate admitted that he copied some of the ongoing projects in Douala from what he saw in Yaounde.
He quickly added that he has no complex in copying any good thing which his colleague in Yaounde or any of his colleagues else where are doing. "Only idiots do not copy good things," Ntone Ntone said, apparently responding to those petty traders who have been accusing him of causing the council to destroy their roadside stalls.
Meanwhile, Wouri SDO Atebede, noted that one of the major preoccupations of the international community today, is global warming. Describing the tree as life, he also stressed the importance of trees in environmental protection.
He hailed "Operation 10,000 Trees in 2008" as a concrete response to the call by the government for all hands to be put on deck, to embark on projects or actions geared towards the protection of the environment.
The SDO stated that the trees will become public property, and thus everyone will have the responsibility to protect them.He warned that anybody caught destroying any of the trees, will live to regret it.
FCFA 7,500 For A Tree
But perhaps the controversy about the Operation 10,000 Trees is the price for any of the young tree species, which is FCFA 7,500.When the head of the operation at the Douala Urban Council, Dr. Mamert Loe, announced the amount at the lunching ceremony, many people exchanged glances.
It was a situation which even Loe himself quickly seemed to understand that the people considered the amount too high. He thus, tried to explain that the FCFA 7,500 will go for some required materials and products like fertilizers, to enable the plants to grow well.
The atmosphere seemed to turn gloomier as a list of names of the enterprises and individuals who had already reacted positively to the appeal of the Douala Urban Council for contributions were read out.
Interestingly, the donations were read out in terms of the equivalent number of trees rather than the cash donations.The list showed that some 2000 trees had so far been donated, with CAMTEL alone donating 1000 trees (FCFA 7, 5 million).
Other enterprises that that had made the donations included Standard Chartered Bank with 100 trees (FCFA 750,000). As for individuals, the list included Ntone Ntone (50 trees) and Loe with six trees.
Comments