Government departments and other public institutions in Homa Bay County have targeted to plant an ambitious 4.3 million trees this tree planting season.Government officials led by Principal Secretary for Roads Joseph Mbugua led the tree planting exercise in Gembe Hills, Suba North, during the Monday holiday.Partners from various organisations, such as the Sigona Thomas Foundation, also joined in the exercise and expressed confidence that they will meet the target.Also joining in the exercise were Homa Bay Commissioner Moses Lilan, Homa Bay County Executive Member for Water and Environment Joash Aloo, Sigona Thomas Foundation Chief Executive Officer Kepha Onyango, and Homa Bay UDA acting Chairman Kennedy Obuya.'We are planting trees to make our country green by restoring forest cover not only in Homa Bay but the entire country,' Mbugua said.Mbugua said they are starting with areas that have been exposed badly due to deforestation.Mbugua urged Homa Bay residents to embrace the spirit of growing tre es to enable the government to succeed in its efforts to fight the adversity of climate change.'Let every resident of Homa Bay make growing trees a habit to enable us to fight the negative impact of climate change,' he said.Lilan said the tree planting activity was done at designated places in all sub-locations in the county.'I urge residents to cooperate in tree planting to enable us to achieve the required forest cover in our county. Trees are a source of wealth for human beings,' Lilan said.Also, the Homa Bay County government has come up with a policy where they want mourners during funerals to plant not less than 100 trees.'We have to come up with the best ways of increasing our forest cover, which is still as low as 3.18 per cent. I encourage all of us to embrace the idea,' Aloo said.Onyango said they provided 10,000 trees during the launch, and they will continue sourcing seedlings for growing.He said his foundation is ready for such cooperation to ensure the government achieves its agend a.'We'll work hand in hand with stakeholders in this to make Homa Bay green. The foundation has supported the planting of over 30,000 trees in Homa Bay and neighbouring counties,' Onyango said.Obuya said they are partnering with the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to plant trees along the roads.'This will prevent our roads from getting eroded,' Obuya said.Source: Kenya News AgencyResidents from the Eengodi, Nehale Lyampingana and Okankolo constituencies in the Oshikoto Region on Wednesday marched to the Office of the Governor, Penda Ya Ndakolo at Omuthiya, to air their grievances on the water shortage they continuously face.Reading a petition on behalf of the residents, Josef Josef said the situation has deteriorated and residents have since 2017 been waiting for the upgrade of water pipelines, as promised to them.'This year, we are left with no alternative since all the water sources on which we have been depending no longer have the capacity to sustain our water needs and some have been exhausted,' he said.The problem, he said is costing them many sleepless nights as they spend most of their nights away from home in search of water, and requested Government to help them urgently.'We can no longer tolerate the situation,' Josef said.The residents further demanded to get proper water pipeline systems within their constituencies and the construction of sustainable water rese rvoirs or earth dams that would provide accessible water to the communities in the long run.'We request the Ministry of Works and Transport to rehabilitate the existing gravel road from Onyati to Onkumbula as well as to work on the existing driveways to make it possible for the water tanker trucks to access remote areas in all our constituencies. Due to the state of the driveways, vehicles would get stuck in the sand, making it difficult for service delivery,' Josef read.They went on to request that all boreholes that are currently not operational be repaired and equipped with water desalination systems within two weeks to make the water consumable for both humans and animals while waiting on the water pipe systems.The residents gave the governor's office 10 days to respond to their petition, which was received by Chief Regional Officer Christella Mwenyo on the governor's behalf.Source: The Namibian Press Agency