By: Dawda Baldeh
Honourable Rohey John Manjang, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change has said Gambians need an attitudinal change in their fight against climate change, as it is a key component in combating climate change; the negative impact of which is being felt by the country in recent years.
During an exclusive with this medium, the Environment Minister said people need to modify their attitudes in order to succeed in fighting against climate change.
“We need to change our attitudes towards climate change. If we don’t change our attitudes, we can’t combat climate change and we will continue to feel its negative impact,” she emphasized.
The honourable minister was speaking to The Fatu Network after the devastating flash floods that hit the country in the last days of July, making families welcome August with grief.
“We have seen the impact of climate change in the country in recent years. We need to do the needful to combat climate change. People are not planting trees which is very important in combating climate change. Deforestation is getting higher on daily basis and we need to plan more trees to cover the soil so that they can help us.
Trees are very important in our lives because they give us oxygen, which we cannot live without. Many people are not taking early warnings very seriously. Climate change is real and we need to respect that.”
Ms Manjang further buttressed the need for people to avoid settling on waterways, saying it risks flooding.
She added that if people can change their attitudes towards climate change, the fight to combat it will be easy.
“Today we are facing all these problems because of climate change and yet people are not taking it very seriously,” she added.
The environment minister urged people to be vigilant and adhere to the advice of experts to prevent themselves from the reoccurrence of such disasters that has not spared many parts of the country.
However, a situational report from the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) has revealed that eleven people (11) have died in the recent flash flooding.
