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{
    "id": 1143626,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1143626/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 35,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Rarieda, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Otiende Amollo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13465,
        "legal_name": "Paul Otiende Amollo",
        "slug": "paul-otiende-amollo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I support the spirit and context of the Petition, not necessarily the conclusion. I think the conclusion is what the Committee must examine. While it is a good a thing to have more bodies regulate the environment, it is also true that some of the bodies we have had including NEMA, have tended to focus more on development rather than the environment generally. They have tended to focus on who is doing development, the licenses to be given to them rather than on essential issues of environment including the ten per cent tree cover. What are we doing to encourage people, even along the lake as I am now doing in my constituency, to for example, grow bamboo? What are we doing to ensure that there is essential tree cover? They tend to only focus on when people want to do development, because obviously that is where the money is. They have over concentrated on urban areas and not so much in the rural areas. We must also caution that some things are not necessarily as a result of a lacuna of legislation. We must caution ourselves that not every human problem is solved by legislation. There are some problems that are solved by policy. The Committee will, therefore, examine and ask themselves whether we do not have sufficient legislation or whether the problem is non-implementation of that legislation. Overall, I support a re-examination of the operation of the EMCA Act with a view to achieving a better tree cover and conserving the environment. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
}