HARARE - The City of Harare has set a target to plant a million trees per year to replace the ones that have been cut indiscriminately by desperate residents seeking firewood for cooking whenever there are power cuts. (Pictured: Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda planting a tree at an occasion to wel
In an interview with The Zimbabwean, Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said 3000 trees were planted in Dzivarasekwa suburb from the onset of the summer planting season.
“We want to plant a million trees per year to reforest woodlots and hills that have been cleared. There has been a serious environmental degradation in Harare,” Masunda said after planting a tree at an occasion to welcome 80 people who walked from Gweru to Harare to promote tree planting.
Masunda added, “People are not going to stop cutting down trees unless and until a sustainable power supply is guaranteed. They are going to do a serious damage to the environment.”
Bare hills are now evident in most parts of Harare a situation that environment and weather experts say could affect weather patterns in the capital.
The city authorities have also embarked on replacing ageing trees that were cut down in the central business district but motorists fear this could reduce parking space in the already congested city.
As a solution, Harare is currently fighting to regain ownership of the city’s thermal power station currently being run by the national power utility the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).
“We are in the process of reclaiming Harare thermal power station and plans are to install a 500 megawatt generator. The output is projected to cater for industrial and household consumption.
We want the city to get back to be a one stop shop,” Mayor Masunda said.
It is however uncertain if Harare will be able to regain the ownership as ZESA is reported to be discussing a financing deal with Botswana to resuscitate the power station.
Under the deal, Harare thermal power station is set to start with a 40 megawatt output in 2011 part of which will be exported to Botswana.
ZESA has a similar arrangement with Namibia’s Nampower who injected funds for the Hwange Power station.
Zimbabwe is said to have a generating capacity of about 1 960MW of which about 1 000MW of non-firm power generation is available for production.
The country imports an average of 300MW from the region, mainly from Mozambique and Zambia to cover for the mismatch between insufficient domestic power production and growing local demand.
Post published in: News