Felling of trees must stop to avoid climate change – NADMO
The Agona West Municipal Directorate of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has marked the World Disaster Day with a call on the citizenry to stop felling of trees to avoid climate change.
It also cautioned the public, especially estate developers to desist from putting up buildings on waterways, to prevent flooding and disasters.
The week-long celebrations, took officials of the Directorate to churches, mosques, market places, schools, keep fit clubs, civic organisations, driver’s unions and students bodies to sensitise them on the need to prevent disasters.
Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Agona West Municipal Chief Executive expressed regret over the alarming rate at which trees were being fell illegally and affecting the environment.
She said the illegal activities of some unscrupulous people were posing serious threat to the virgin forests, which could lead to climate change and affect the rainfall pattern of the country.
“The painful aspects of it is that these people are only interested in making money at the expense of the State and they have wilfully refused to plant trees to replace those that they cut down,” she said.
Mrs Assan said the Agona West Municipal Assembly would collaborate with the Forestry Commission to nurse over 5,000 different species of trees to be distributed to schools and organisations for replanting along roadsides, public spaces and campuses to serve as windbreaks to reduce the occurrence of disaster.
She urged estate developers in the municipality to seek directives from the Works Department of the Assembly to avoid building on waterways and that the authorities of the Assembly would not tolerate such acts.
The Chief Executive disclosed that the Assembly had set up a taskforce to deal with people who put up structures without permits, to prevent haphazard construction of buildings.
Mrs Assan also hinted that the Assembly bye-laws had been gazetted and that any sanitary offender caught, would be dealt with and that the laws also give the chiefs and elders in the communities power to check school children who are seen in public in the night after 2000 hours.
She said the Assembly was assisting landlords with building materials and technical advice to get household toilets to ease the pressure on public toilets.
Ms Betty Adwoa Nyantakyiwaa Kwaako, the Agona West Municipal Director of NADMO educated students and parents on the proper usage of gas cylinder to avoid fire disaster.
She entreated the citizenry to desist from dumping refuse into gutters, which she said caused flood and disaster whenever it rained and that prevention was far better than receiving relief support.
Nana Appoh III, the Benkumhene of Agona Nyakrom Traditional Council appealed to officials of NADMO and district, municipal and metropolitan chief executives to ensure that relief items reached the rightful disaster victims.
Source: GNA