Area Chief Christine Maithya visited Diaspora University Town (DUT) to plant trees. Through the chief’s offices across Kenya, the government of Kenya plans to plant over 1 billion trees. The DUT plan is to plant 200,000 trees on 1,500 acres. The trees will be planted in the riparian areas, in the 3,778 plots, especially the 69 plots allocated for planting trees, and in the 60 km road network areas designated for trees.
The DUT team that took time to plant trees included Dan Kamau, the DUT Project Director, Ronald Mwangombe of DUT Materials, Barnabas Mwadembo of DUT Design-Build, Lucy Malemba of Water, Alex Mwale of DUT Sewer and Waste Water Management, and others.
The team also reviewed trees planted the previous year during the tree planting day. About 10,000 trees have been planted so far. Lucy Malemba, who is developing the DUT water plan, said that once buildings are erected and roads paved, about 100 million litres of rainwater will be harvested. This water will be applied to sustain the 200,000 trees.
One of the roles of trees in the ecosystem is removing carbon from the air. Once a population of 25,000 residents and 5,000 university students is established in the town, the trees will take in the carbon dioxide breathed out and break it down into oxygen and carbon. The residents' vehicles in the town will also produce carbon dioxide.
