EPA slams destruction of natural resources by foreigners

Mr Daniel Amlalo, Executive Director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has blamed the exploitation and destruction of the country’s forest reserves on foreigners and called on all Ghanaians to help protect the nation’s resources.

He said in many of the mining communities, lives are at risk because of the exploitation of the mineral resources without due diligence.

Mr Amalo was speaking in Tamale on Friday when he handed over an Automation and Connectivity system to the local EPA office to enhance internal and external communication

The project, which is on a pilot process, is being funded by Government of Ghana and Canadian International Development Agency to improve information sharing and transfer through a digital technological process.

The automation system installed has a Local Area Network and connected to the Government Network system to digitize EPA.

Mr Amalo noted that renewable water resources are being destroyed with chemicals, and asked Ghanaians to rise up to confront the situation.

“If we fail to fight against the practice, we will be fighting among ourselves in few years for water, food and other resources,” he said.

Mr Amlalo appealed to chiefs in the Northern Region to guard their resources judiciously and by resisting unsustainable exploitation.

“EPA does not prevent the harvesting of resources but it must be done sustainably.”

Mr Abu Iddrisu, Regional Director of the EPA said the project would help promote the organisational goals of the Agency by propelling effective communication which is core in the protection of the environment.

Mr William Tevie, Director General of National Information Technology Agency said his outfit has started the second phase of the e-Government project to expand the network coverage to improve the penetration of the Government network infrastructure.

He said the wireless technology would also be upgraded from the WIMAX to 4G LTE technology to provide both voice and data services to make the network more resilient.

Source: GNA