EPA SUPPORTS UE COMMUNITIES ON ENVIROMENTAL PROTECTION (PAGE 42, DEC 1, 2010)

THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Upper East Region is partnering some communities in the region to protect the environment and other natural resources.
The move is also aimed at curbing bush burning and rampant felling of trees that degrade the environment.
One of the communities to benefit from such collaboration is the Sherigu in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Speaking at a community forum at Sherigu, the Regional Director of the EPA, Mrs Zenabu Wasai King, said environmental problems, especially land degradation had been terrible challenges over the years in the region in particular and the nation in general.
She stated that the challenges had made survival of mankind more difficult and unpleasant.
Mrs Zenabu mentioned illegal mining activities, over-grazing, poor farming practices, harsh climatic conditions, bush fires, cutting of trees for fuel wood and other related human activities among the major activities that destroyed water bodies, food insecurity, health hazards and climatic change.
The EPA Regional Director, therefore, stressed the need for all and sundry to be conscious of the environment and protect it for the future generation.
She said the EPA had teamed up with communities such as Jetiaga in the Bawku Municipality to organise community forums on the devastating effects of bush burning on the environment.
Mrs Zenabu added that the EPA had also held talk shows for environmental clubs in senior high schools in the region and educated the students on the need to green the region.
She stated that as part of the watershed management, the EPA was also supporting the Sherigu community to plant and nurture over 1,200 tree species along the Aperiga stream which was one of the tributaries of the River Naga.
Mrs Zebabu appealed to Municipal and District Assemblies in the region to enforce building regulations to prevent people from building on water ways and to comply with building codes.
She urged traditional authorities to institute effective community measures to minimise bush burning.
The leader of Divine Tender Care Foundation, a community-based organisation in the Sherigu community, Mr Sylvester Adigma, who is partnering the EPA, said under the guidance of the EPA and the Ghana National Fire Service, the community had embraced a well thought out programme to protect the environment.
He said many tree species and alternative livelihood programmes had been adopted, which had started yielding positive results.
According to Mr Adigma, the programmes had attracted some foreign organisations, which had moved in to assist them.
Madam Juliet Iris Crabbe of the Ghana National Fire Service educated the community members on the effects of bush burning, and urged them to effectively manage the use of fires so as not to destroy the environment.
The representative of the chief of Sherigu, Apasenaba Nsoh, appealed to the government to provide the community with a dam which would also serve as a source of water supply to support the community tree planting programme.