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TURIDEP takes steps to check environmental degradation
Funsi (UW), April 26, Ghanadot/GNA - The
Tumu Deanery Rural Integrated Development Programme (TURIDEP),
a Catholic organization has initiated steps to protect lands
in the Sissala areas of the Upper West Region from
indiscriminate exploitation.
As part of the programme, the organization brought together
major players in the environment sector in the region to
brainstorm and find ways of protecting lands that were under
serious threat.
Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana National Fire
Service, Wildlife Division and the Forestry Services
Division attended the meeting at Funsi in the Wa East
district on Friday.
Mr James Duma, Manager of TURIDEP said the aim of the
organization was to help the people to plan and design
development programmes to raise the living standards of the
people.
He said communities in Sissala still had vast moderately
fertile land for farming, good land for livestock
production, numerous water bodies, clay and mineral rocks
and good habitat for game and wildlife which had attracted
people to enhance their livelihood.
Mr Duma said in effect, settler farmers, Fulani herdsmen and
chain saw operators had started plundering, damaging and
degrading the environment with impunity.
"Our rich game and wildlife is extinct, one can hardly see
even a rabbit. Rivers have dried up, the vast grassland is
almost gone and we are now farming on marginal lands. The
future looks bleak if nothing is done about this", he said.
Mr Asher Nkegbe, Upper West Regional Director of the EPA,
said once poverty had been identified as a major problem
leading to environmental degradation, efforts should be
geared towards providing alternative livelihood support
programmes for the people.
He said with Funds from the United Nations Development
Programme, the EPA had started guinea fowl rearing projects
in the Lawra and Lambussie districts of the region.
Naa Abu Salia Bafaradu, a retired Educationist and a
Traditional ruler observed that chiefs should be empowered
to control their environment and prevent any body who tried
to damage the environment and destroy the people's
livelihood.
GNA
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