By Isha S. Mansaray
“The Yeliboya Island in Kambia of about 2,000 people is sinking,” said Environment Minister Professor Foday Jaward.
The minister made this disclosure at the Thursday weekly government press briefing held in the conference room of the Ministry of Information and Communications at the Youyi Building in Freetown.
According to the professor, the reason for the island’s sinking is yet to be properly ascertained, adding, “We are still studying why it is sinking. Is it because of the sea level rise or is it because of erosion?”
However, Prof. Jaward revealed that his ministry is working towards a reasonable effort to find solutions for the people living on that Island. “We are trying to get some funds, but the good news is that the people of Yeliboya are ready to move out,” he disclosed.
He added that the people of Yeliboya are citizens of Sierra Leone, which makes it the responsibility of the government of Sierra Leone to provide the environmental security they need.
“If they stay there they will perish,” Prof. Jaward confirmed.
In a related development, Prof. Jaward disclosed that his ministry and the Office of the President are working towards securing the environment, which is why they launched the National Tree Planting Project on 5th June 2020 to plant millions of trees nationwide. “We are targeting to plant five million trees before 2023,” he assured.
Prof. Jaward said the second phase of the tree planting effort will start at the end of March, although he said they have succeeded in planting an incredible amount of trees in 2020.
“In 2020 our target was to plant 1.2 million trees; we planted about 1.1 million trees, which is about 85% of our target,” he revealed.
Apart from benefits to the environment, the erudite Environment Minister said the tree planting exercise is also benefitting the unemployed, adding that “tree planting…has also created jobs; 20,000, temporary and permanent jobs; 7,000 permanent jobs amongst the 20,000 jobs.”
Consequently, Prof. Jaward has called on the people of Sierra Leone to stop setting fires to bushes, which he called “illegal and very destructive.” He climaxed his briefing by also calling on Paramount Chiefs to stop harbouring illegal foreign miners.