GITEGA, September 28th (ABP) – The Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Dr. Sanctus Niragira and that of Hydraulics, Energy and Mines, Ir. Ibrahim Uwizeye, responded on Tuesday September 26, 2023, in Gitega (center of the country) to the invitation of senators gathered in plenary assembly, to respond, each as far as they are concerned, to oral questions with debates.
The session, which lasted more than 10 hours, was concluded with recommendations to those members of the Government, to improve their services for the benefit of the people.
In the agricultural field, they recommended to Minister Niragira to be alongside economic operators wishing to invest in agriculture, by advocating for the granting in their favor of large agricultural operations and to provide agricultural inputs to farmers in good time. They also recommended that he plead with the State to grant means of travel to the staff of the DPEAE (provincial directorate of the environment, agriculture and livestock) for the supervision of field activities, initiate the wheat sector so that Burundi no longer depends on the outside world with this product and mobilize the people around the restoration of coffee growing to promote this sector of undeniable importance in the economic life of the country.
In terms of livestock, they recommended ensuring strict compliance with the permanent housing of domestic animals, building the capacities of communal veterinarians and making phytosanitary products available.
In terms of the environment, the recommendation was to invest in the protection of national parks, particularly the Ruvubu national park, often threatened by bush fires, they deplored.
As for Minister Uwizeye, they recommended promoting public-private partnership in the water sector to remedy the apparent water shortage which is felt in many corners of the country. They also invited him to build the capacities of underwater divers and increase their workforce, to rehabilitate the catchment sources, to protect the drilling sites of the Mwanzari water sources serving the people of the townspeople of Gitega, to promote the use of coal in cooking instead of wood, with a view to preserving the environment and prohibiting all human activity in the surroundings of the Rwegura hydroelectric dam to further encourage the infiltration of water which supplies the said dam.