THERE will be plenty to chew for all sorts of professionals, administrators and academics as well as various other influencers, after the Vice President’s Office (VPO) laid out the core of the government’s environmental plans for the next half decade.

The task VPO faced was doubtless too vast for comfort first as it involves figuring out how millions of actors should be directing their work or prospects in relation to the environment.

Secondly, it had little choice on the trajectory as it had to conform to public sector primacy in how the goals ought to be realised.

This drawback will likely constitute a structural challenge as we move into the first gear, so to speak, as it promises more of the same as it doesn’t alter the major roles.

A rapid scan at the scale of the problem indicates that what is needed is really to place most of the country under a modified environmental oversight framework, whereas the VPO’s plan seeks to mobilise those overseeing land and a breadth of natural resources to do things differently – by their own volition.

That prospect in large measure means seeking own finances to do so, a sure recipe for daunting challenges in the course of actual implementation.

A major reason is the fact of having a rigid framework of public sector primacy on the issues, locking out vast business opportunities for innovators and investors responding to what innovators bring to the table as a bankable business proposal.

There was a time sometime in recent years when the leader of the Uhuru Torch race appealed to the government to take a close look at district council finances and see how many development projects were generated from local funds.

He said he was sure the number was likely to be more or less negligible, which however wasn’t to suggest that local councils actually did nothing but rather moved to chip in where others (central government, corporate social responsibility funds, etc.,) had laid the groundwork or were putting final touches to whatever was already under implementation.

The VPO can realistically assign local authorities to facilitate, coordinate and expedite tasks for agencies or firms with linked projects but not really do the work itself.

 Attempts have at some points in the past half-decade been directed at making regional secretariats the basis of development work in their respective zones, but that idea has never really moved off the ground.

Administrative and political conveniences make districts the focal point of project implementation and by definition they wait for central government and donor funds, and are unreliable as contractual partners save for waste removal engagements where district officials often have a share in such contracts.

Asking such agencies to work on land degradation affecting more than 60 per cent of arid and semi-arid areas or the spread of invasive species of pests over more than 20 regions would evidently be a non-starter,

Low waste recycling rates at 37 per cent as now obtains are an example, proof that when the energy market is liberalised innovators will pick up waste for generation of power and other uses.

Asking people to sort waste manually as a way of easing later recycling would help little, as existing recyclers don’t really need aid and dumps would “benefit” much more from producers of power.