Speaker of the August House Richard Msowoya has encouraged Malawians to conserve the environment if they want to mitigate effects of climate change.
The call was made as the country on Tuesday joined the entire world in commemorating the World Environmental Day which falls on 5 June.
Writing on his Facebook page, Msowoya reminded Malawians that climate change is real and its effects are visible hence people have a role to play in reducing the effects of the global warming.
“The starting point is enforcing the environmental protection laws that already exist,” said Msowoya.
“For Instance, we have laws intended to preserve and protect river banks. Yet looking around, you find a lot of environmental unfriendly activity happening in our river banks.”
He also told Malawians to find other alternatives to alleviate poverty than cutting down trees to source money.
“Over and above that, it is important to acknowledge the role poverty is playing in promoting practices that are detrimental to the environment,” Msowoya said. “It is, therefore, important to provide sustainable alternatives to the harmful sources of fuel and energy of our people.”
The leader of the National Assembly has also asked Malawians to abandon bad farming practices and the use of burnt bricks for building to avoid further environmental degradation.
