Agbodza expresses concern about Adaklu mountain's depleting vegetative cover
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Agbodza on Thursday toured the mudslide scenes at Adaklu-Helekpe to see at first hand the damage in the community the previous night.
Related article: Mudslide from mountain: Fear grips Adaklu-Helekpe
At a meeting with the chiefs and elders of the community before the tour, Mr Agbodza expressed concern about the rate at which the vegetative cover on the Adaklu Mountain was being depleted.
That, and other unfriendly human activities on the mountain, may have caused the mudslide to run downslope at such a dreadful speed.
Mr Agbodza, who is the Minister for Roads and Highways, said Adaklu-Helekpe was blessed with vast and fertile land, and so it was time to stop tilling the slopes of the mountain and descend onto the land in the community for farming.
He recalled a similar incident in the community nine years ago, and said what happened on Wednesday could be a prelude to a more disastrous incident from the mountain.
The Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu who accompanied the MP, expressed similar sentiments and said it was time the people of the community adopted nature conservation activities to prevent such occurrences in future.
He commended the youth of the community for defying the strong winds and power outage to rescue the woman and her son, who were trapped in the debris.
The regional minister touched on climate change and said bush fires, tree felling, and excessive cultivation of the slopes of mountains were not a friendly and safe response to that phenomenon.
“We must ensure the future generations become inheritors and not just survivors,” he added.
The MP and regional minister later visited the injured woman and the child who were on admission at the Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH).
