Suburban
THIS Saturday, Zimbabwe marks the National Tree Planting Day and we take this opportunity to urge residents of Harare and indeed the entirety of Zimbabwe to plant trees. Ahead of this important day on our calendar, it is commendable that some organisations such as Trees for Harare, Hillside Park and other nature lovers have been encouraging everyone to take part in the planting of trees and ensure the greening of our cities, towns, farms and villages.
This year’s National Tree Planting Day comes in the wake of wanton cutting down of tress particularly in Harare. We have witnessed unprecedented cutting down of trees without a corresponding planting of new trees and that is worrying. A new study led by Boston University School of Public Health researchers and published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health recently found that increasing green vegetation in large, metropolitan areas could have prevented between 34,000-38,000 deaths, based on data from 2000-2019, according to www.sciencedaily.com.
The nationwide study also showed that overall greenness in US metro area has increased in the past 20 years, by nearly 3 percent between 2000-2010 and 11 percent between 2010-2019. But we doubt the same can said about Harare yet the health benefits of greenness are well documented.
Lining our streets with trees costs little, although it does require a communal effort, and is something community leaders can initiate.
In the 1900s it said that most householders in Harare were prepared to take a few minutes a week to chuck a bucket of water over the half-dozen tree saplings outside their properties until the trees were established.
But now we have new suburbs with sun-baked verges and new highways glittering in the summer sun.
Yet it would not be difficult to change this. Surely along most streets residents could chose by majority vote what species they would like to see, with municipal nursery experts listing the desirable trees. The city council could provide the seedlings for free and someone from the council could walk down the road with a bunch of stakes to mark where each tree should be planted the correct distance from road and property wall and evenly spaced.
Council workers could be used in off-peak periods to dig holes ahead of the start of the rains although householders could be invited to have the same holes dug. Most Zimbabweans are very house-proud and most verges are looked after, with gardens extended into the verges in many cases.
We only have to look at some new developments on the city’s former open spaces and compare these to established suburbs, to realise just how much Harare owes to its trees. And even returning to the new development five years later, when the new owners have done so much gardening and tree-planting, emphasises the need for more planned tree planting, especially as with the smaller modern plots more of the trees need to be in the street.
Living in greener areas can have a positive impact on our physical and mental health and we need to preserve the trees we have and plant more.
