BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
AS far as the PG2023 is concerned the Solo Enviro beautification has been carrying out some beautification works in preparation.
In 2020, the Non –profit Organisation (NGO) were asked to respond to a tender for a landscaping expert to be involved in all the green landscaping work for the games.
“And as we are very much aware that time is running out and all the construction people are very busy constructing infrastructures.
“There is a bit of concern that we have had not been involved very much to work alongside the constructions for the games,’’ said Sue Mackie, SEB Director and Manager.
“And I am worried that greening and landscaping should not be something that happens at the last minute because it takes time to grow plants and have things ready,’’ she said.
She pointed out that during every construction activities that happen, there must be a landscaping team involved from the start.
“We see the new road along the Tandai highway is been marked out and from that, I can tell that all the Christmas trees, all the frangipani trees, almost all the trees along the road are going to be stripped out,’’ she said.
“And I would like to think they should replace them by doubling or tripling the number of trees because nobody wants to walk along the highway in the hot sun,’’ Said Mackie.
“Even the 2023 sites for example the High-Performance Centre where it now completed and the participants are practising hard for the games, but I’d love to see trees all the way around that,’’ she told environment Media Solomon Islands.
The SEB Director stated that Trees in the open environment are not only to cool it down but to provide shade to people to sit underneath and also cool the whole environment.
“And we really don’t want Honiara to turn from a dusty city to a concrete jungle we would like it to be cool, fresh, and nice and clean. That’s really our role but we are really hoping the Authorities talk to us soon as possible about the games,’’ she said.
Mrs Mackie said that two big projects that were underway are the idea to have a champions’ tree project where there would be one tree for every single medal in the games.
“And I think there would be 3,500 medals, so this would be a walkway with the trees along each side, maybe later on the medal winners will be labelled on the trees.
“And another plan related to the games is to improve the main roundabout (HCC) which has nice grass now but needs to really look good for the games, at least to be a show piece with flags,’’ she said.
She said that the games committee has a plan to put an electric billboard there (HCC) with perhaps the programs of the day and they’ll contribute to some of the landscaping there, as well as a big sign of the SPG symbol with the tree paddles.
“And we hope to work on that when we start soon,’’ admitted Mrs Mackie.
The solo Envi-Beautification has been around for over 20 years.
SEB is a non-profit organisation supported by their own resources, sponsors and donors. They don’t rely on government funds for their work.
SEB currently employed around 40 people.
