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{
    "id": 381141,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381141/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "reality. The land we refer to as riparian is also referred to as ancestral land by local communities. Under the new Constitution, we will be faced with a challenge of either forcefully removing people from what they refer to as ancestral land or educating them on how to live in the very delicate ecosystems. If we educated them enough and sensitized them to know that their ecosystem is not like any other and that if they behaved in a particular manner, they would sustain various resources contained in this very productive ecosystem, then they would become partners with the Government in maintaining a certain level of way of life. This would ensure that their activities do not translate into pollution, especially to riparian communities downstream. We know that every activity upstream has a direct impact on those living downstream. They should become our partners in ensuring that water bodies remain pure, sustained and that activities downstream are maintained. I believe now that we have a country that is over 70 per cent arid and semi arid land and with the real threat of food insecurity, we need to take these issues more seriously. If we have to make this a reality and avoid suffering as we have suffered for a long time, then the dream of feeding ourselves, as a nation, must become a reality. For us to have enough food stocks to feed our nation, this is the only way to go. The only other way is to ensure that, it is not only in the civil education and in sensitizing these people, but we need to interrogate the kind of development activities that take place in riparian communities. There are some development activities whose effects spark a ripple effect that cannot be reversed. You will find the construction of one very good development activity that also brings positive effects, but in the short term has far reaching negative effects to the point that by the time we want to reverse the effects, we cannot recover the ecosystem. My support lies in the last part of this Motion. We should sensitize these communities. We should also facilitate these communities. Special facilitation should be given to communities that are living in riparian areas, so that they can select the kind of development activities that can be undertaken in those areas. The kind of houses to be constructed in those areas are not the same ones that can be constructed, for example, in non-water catchment area. To pretend that we will not allow any human activity is not being realistic. So, this is the way to go. We should educate them and facilitate them. In case they are withdrawing their livelihoods in those areas, for instance, if one is withdrawing from selling firewood, we should supplement them. We need to supply them with special jikos that would stop them from cutting down trees. Telling a community to stop cutting trees without giving them an alternative and yet, they have to feed themselves and cook every day, is an exercise in futility. They will somehow continue to cut down trees to get firewood or charcoal to cook. The Government should give this matter a different approach and treat it as a source of livelihood. If we treated it as a source of livelihood and injected a lot of money in sustaining these communities in terms of civic education, financial assistance and bursaries to educate children and students in those areas and offload the burden from parents who would otherwise find economic activities that are not friendly, we would achieve the sustenance of clean water that would, by extension, be used for irrigation. Eventually, they can produce the kind of food that can feed this nation. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}