The government has banned logging for a period of three months to allow the Country regain a substantial forest cover. The ban has come immediately after reports of dwindling water reservoirs and impending drought and water shortage. I commend the government’s immediate response to this catastrophe. It was long overdue.
Basic Science explains how forest “brings” rain. Water gets lost in form of gas or vapor through the leaves in a process known as transpiration. There are many types of transpiration: Lenticular transpiration which happens through the lenticels, Cuticular transpiration which takes place through the cuticle and stomatal transpiration which takes place through the stomata. When this vapor rises up, they condense and form water goblets. When the water goblet gets heavy, it breaks and falls back to the ground as rain and /or hailstones.
With this knowledge, destroying forest is the worst punishment a person can do to the existence of humanity, wildlife, and plants. Water is life. Without it we are dead. It was, therefore, worrying to read reports of dwindling forest cover. The best way to deal with water shortage is to increase the forest cover. One way of doing this is to stop legal and illegal logging activities. We should all obey this directive and report any legal activities to the relevant authorities.
The late Wangari Maathai fought for the preservation and conservation of the environment and a time like this we should remember her and honor her. Let us not just stop legal and illegal logging. We should also strive to plant more trees to increase the forest cover.
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