Environmentalist worried over uncoordinated sand winning activities
Mr Charles Agboklu, Coordinator of the Evangelical Presbyterian (E.P) Church Agenda 21 Programme on Friday expressed concern about the uncoordinated and unsustainable manner of sand and gravel winning in some communities around Ho.
observed that the activity was degrading the prime lands and posed huge environmental threat to the communities concerned.
Mr Agboklu, who was speaking in a telephone interview with the Ghana News Agency in Ho, therefore urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to check the practice.
He also urged the Ho Municipal Assembly to take serious interest in such developments and ensure that resources in the Municipal area were used sustainably.
Land areas around Sokode, Bame, Akrofu and recently Kpenoe, all in the Ho Municipal area, are degraded due to sand and gravel winning.
The gravel is used for road construction.
Few months ago, the chiefs and people of Kpenoe complained about the winning of sand and gravel around the farming community resulting in erosion, which was washing away the main road leading to the community.
Mr Agboklu advised traditional authorities to safeguard natural resources, including forests in their areas, and urged them to plant more trees to add up to the national stock.
He said the EP Church developed a woodlot at Adaklu-Waya to enhance the tree cover in the area, which had been degraded due to charcoal production, game hunting and cattle grazing.
He said the Church had also established eco-clubs in all its basic schools in the Ho Municipality to bring up the pupils “to love trees and the environment.”
Mr Agboklu urged religious leaders to preach about the protection of the environmental for sustainable development.
Source: GNA