WEST NILE YOUTH PARLIAMENT SOUNDS ALARM ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Participants in West Nile Sub-National Youth Parliament after the parliament session on Friday

By Sabir Musa

Arua

The 5th West Nile Sub-National Youth Parliament on Friday passed several resolutions on protection of environment, urging government to skill young people for environment sustainability and climate change action in west Nile.

This is aimed at ensuring youth people in the region play their role in protection of environment, at the time when several cases of environment degradation are reported from different districts across the region.

They called on the government to invest in programs that empower young people to take action on climate change, including lessons on tree planting and conservation.

A youth from Nebbi District, Enid Kacwinrwoth, proposed for the introduction of programs on mind-set change among young people on environment protections and lessons at school level. “We are not only destroying environment but we are destroying ourselves as well. Because this is the same environment we are going to be feeding ourselves from, this is the same environment we are looking at to protect and shield us. Right now if you look around, you will find that some of the trees that we have are going into extinction,” Enid expressed.

In West Nile, many districts are battling high rate of deforestation, poor waste management and delay to enforce policies designed to protect environment.
Madi Okollo District Youth Councillor, Okello Fred, challenged authorities to use the available legal frameworks in move to protect environment as in-line with Sustainable Development Goals. “We have legal frameworks, several of them, in this country to address all these (problems of environment) but the main challenge is implementation of all those legal frameworks we have,” he said.

The Speaker of 5th West Nile Sub National Youth Parliament, Aldo Adomati, informed that resolutions generated in the parliament session will be presented to government for action.

This year’s session of the West Nile Sub National Youth Parliament sat in Packwach District and attracted 39 participants from districts across the region.
Pacwach Resident District Commissioner, Paul Eseru, urged public to protect environment, stating that it’s everyone’s responsibility.

The Sub-National Youth Parliaments will be followed by National Youth Parliament that will convene in the Parliament of Uganda to make resolutions that will later be presented to government for action.