An environmentalist Robert Chimambo has opposed suggestions by lands minister Elijah Muchima that houses already constructed in forest 27 should not be demolished.
Speaking on Monday after touring forest 27 in the company of Water Development Minister Mike Mposha and Local Government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo, the Lands Minister proposed that the already constructed houses should not be demolished but that no new constructions should be allowed going forward.
But Mr. Chimambo says no structure should be left in the area as the recharge zone will regenerate itself once all the structures there are demolished and the forest remains undisturbed.
Mr. Chimambo says the water recharge zone will continue to be disturbed should the houses be left standing as evidence of pollution and pressure on the land are there to see.
In an interview with Phoenix News, Mr Chimambo has since advised president Hakainde Hichilema to urgently re-gazette forest number 27 and extend the same decision to many forests countrywide that were degazetted and the effects of that decision are already being witnessed such as those in forest 27.