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Environmental Education and Lake Victoria

Through a number of programmes in schools that border the lake in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, WWF is encouraging children, teachers and village leaders in lake conservation

Deeply engrossed, fingers moving deftly to bind the sisal twine, Laura, 11, pauses to pick up the cowry shells and resumes weaving them together to form a pleasing pattern.

Despite the heat, Laura focuses on completing her environment-friendly basket that will probably sell only for a few hundred Kenyan shillings. But earning a few bucks is not her main goal, says the student from Kisumu Girls Primary School.

“I want to tell people that use of natural material rather than plastic is the right thing,” she explains. “It wouldn’t be so hot here at this time of the year if we had paid more attention to preserving our environment,” she adds, her eyes skimming over to the choked banks of Lake Victoria in Kenya.

“Poor environmental practices are killing our fish and choking the waters. Soon, we may not be able to sustain ourselves on these banks,” she laments.

Laura is among the 1,800 school students from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania who have been selected as environmental ambassadors by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for a project dubbed ‘Lake Victoria Catchment Environment Education Programme’ in partnership with Panasonic.

These ambassadors are being trained to reach out to 15,000 community members with the help of 1,500 faculty members from three model schools to spread awareness on conservation of the catchment basin. A similar programme implemented in the rural schools has seen an increased conservation of wetlands and improved farming practices.

Poor environmental practices have led to major challenges in Kisumu, located on the banks of the biggest fresh water resource in the region and the second largest in the world. Lake Victoria is the key water body with nine countries directly depending on it for water supply.

According to environmentalists, eastern and southern Africa’s rather productive ecosystems and the environment face several man-made threats.

“Poverty, rapid urbanisation, unplanned development, pollution, overfishing and several other issues are leading to habitat degradation and over-exploitation of natural resources,” explained Rubina Haroon, regional representative, WWF, eastern and southern Africa, during the launch of the programme earlier this month. The programme is also being implemented through wildlife clubs of these three countries.

One school each from Tanzania (Mwisenge Primary), Uganda (Butende Primary in Masaka) and Kenya (Kisumu Girls) is also being transformed into a green model school.

“Students will be encouraged to develop and sustain a green idea, be environmentally responsible and act as citizens of the earth to take action to protect the planet,” she said, adding, “They will be encouraged to form a discussion forum between children in the region and the outside world on the 
web. Role of education is vital especially among students since it will act as a bridge between the schools and community.”

The Kenyan government is injecting five billion Kenyan shillings in a project that will see school children plant trees across the country’s environmental hotspots. “Cut one tree, plant five,” says Sam Okello, the mayor of Kisumu City reiterating the government’s environmental slogan. “When we are talking about involving children, we are investing in the future.”

The project is designed to provide alternative livelihoods that will empower them and alleviate poverty. Students will be taught on setting up of tree nurseries and tree planting, agroforestry, organic farming, fish farming, bee-keeping, chicken-rearing, crafts-making, mushroom-growing, use of energy saving jikos and biogas production.

Panasonic is sponsoring the urban component of the catchment programme and will be donating $15,000 each for three years.

To achieve this goal, the company is pursuing its Eco Ideas for Lifestyles by promoting sustainable and comfortable green lifestyles.

“We pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 15 per cent from our facility and double the sales of our industry-leading environmentally-conscious products in the region,” says Seiji Koyanagi, managing director of Panasonic Middle East & Africa.

“We will also encourage Panasonic employees to lead conservation efforts in cooperation with the local communities,” he adds. The Panasonic/WWF partnership project will empower catchment communities, schools and regional partners with the knowledge, motivation and abilities for sustainable use and management of natural resources, he says.

Also, following its corporate social responsibility, the company has pledged to provide scholarships worth Dh50,000 to two science students in a university in Abu Dhabi. Employees will also be observing an eco lunch hour once a month eating only organic foodstuff cooked using energy efficient cooking methods. Car-pooling will also 
be encouraged.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com