15/01/2022
BUSH FIRE PREVENTION, A CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY GHANAIAN
The Central Regional Commander ACFO I John Amarlai Amartey has challenged the people of the Central Region to join the fight against indiscriminate bush burning to safeguard the environment.
He said that burning destroys the ecosystem, negatively affects food security, air and water quality, long term soil infertility, causes the State to loss foreign exchange as important economic places (tourism), fauna (wildlife species) and flora (economic trees) species are lost and also the livelihoods of a section of the populace especially, those who heavily rely on the natural vegetation for farming and other agricultural activities.
ACFO I Amartey stated that PNDCL 229, (Acts 1990) was enacted to deal with individuals who engage in indiscriminate bush burning. To this end, the Command is very much poised to enforce this law to the latter.
He then advised the residents of Central Region to be highly responsive to this call by stopping all activities that culminate into destructive bush fires now that the harmattan is here with us.
ACFO I John Amartey said activities such as on-farm cooking, charcoal burning, game hunting, honey hunting, palm wine tapping, etc, must strictly be avoided to avert the menace of bush burning.
He intimated further that the reason for this timeous bush fire prevention call is also to avert the negative impact these bush burning tend to have on the economy (the State loses 3% of its GDP to bushfire destructions annually) and ecosystem (irregular rainfall pattern, rise in atmospheric temperature, rampant bushfires, etc) at large.
He however, reminded farmers to create farm belts around their farms, engage the services of Fire Volunteers when clearing and preparing their farming lands, creating fire belts as well as burning their farms.
ACFO I John Amarlai Amartey admonished the farmers to practice early or controlled burning before the onset of the dry season and that they should be present to monitor the burning activity.
He also advised those who clear their lands for construction and farming purposes to either use weedicides, modern machine weeding technology or hire labour/Fire Volunteers to do it for them instead of burning.
He again urged anyone who for any reason would want to burn the bush to contact the nearby Fire Volunteers and Station for guidance and clearance.
Filed by PRO
Central Region