Chiefs urged to institute punitive measures against unhealthy environmental practices

Chiefs in the Upper West Region have been called to intensify the fight against climate change by instituting punitive measures to curtail unhealthy practices that are having a negative impact on the environment.

The chiefs have also been charged to reconsider socio-cultural practices that hastened the pace of climate change effects on the environment and take note of positive cultural values and traditions that promote development and endeavour to revitalize them to meet contemporary requirements.

Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan, Upper West Regional Minister, made the call in a speech read on his behalf by Alhaji Abdulai Abubakar, the Regional Coordinating Director, during the celebration of the “Mifele Gbero” (New Millet Festival) of the chiefs and people of Lambussie Traditional Area.

Alhaji Alhassan said the region was close to the desert and the threat of desertification was staring them on the face.

He said the situation is further exacerbated by global warming hence the need for them to tackle these twin problems head on by adopting sound environmental management practices.

“I say this because this region has a lot of degraded lands and with a very fragile ecology. This is caused by negative acts such as indiscriminate bush burning and felling of trees for charcoal and fire wood among other negative practices”, he said.

“It is a known fact that this district is one of the largest producers of charcoal in the country. While leadership would not want to deprive you of your livelihood, you can engage in your trade in a more environmentally friendly manner by using dead trees or sun dried wood for the charcoal”, he said.

While charging Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to make bye-laws against indiscriminate cutting of wood, the Regional Minister also encouraged communities to have woodlots that could be harvested for charcoal and firewood.

Alhaji Alhassan said all the laudable pro-poor agricultural interventions being pursued by government would lead to nothing if they as a people did not address the issues of climate change.

Kuoro Issaka Zeng’eh Kazie Tendzie II, Paramount Chief of Lambussie Traditional Area, said in this era there was no other concern more disastrous than climate change, hence the appropriateness of the theme: “Climate Change and the Effects on Agriculture, Food Security and Human Survival”.

He said agriculture was the mainstay of the people in the traditional Area and appealed to all to be committed to doing something about climate change.

Kuoro Tendzie II used the occasion to remind government that the district was the only sector in the region without an inch of tarred road and appealed to the Regional Minister to assist in getting the contractor to move to site to work on the Lambussie town roads.

The Paramount Chief also appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to adopt the Lambussie Community Day Senior High School as one of the model schools that the government seeks to institute in the country.

Mr Iddrisu Braimah Wikana, Lambussie District Chief Executive (DCE), thanked the Traditional Council for complementing efforts by the District Assembly in ensuring that the district maintained its enviable record of being one of the most peaceful districts in the country.

He assured the people that the district assembly would continue to work hard to complement the efforts of central government in improving education, health, agriculture and water and sanitation infrastructure to make life better and meaningful for the people.

Source: GNA

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