EPA service personnel partners foundation to plant trees
National Service personnel of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), together with the Ama Odame Okyere Foundation, have undertaken a tree planting exercise in Accra.
The group planted 500 seedlings along the Awoshie-Pokuase road in the Ga Central Municipal area in a three-day exercise which started on Wednesday, July 22, 2015.
Towns along the Awoshie-Pokuase road which benefited from the exercise are Awoshie, Anyaa, Palas Town, Nsoufa, Fanmilk and Odorgonno Senior High School.
The Chairman of the EPA National Service Personnel Tree Planting Initiative, Mr Faisal Seidu, said the 2014/2015 service persons of the EPA took this initiative to combat issues of climate change and also inculcate the habit of tree planting in Ghanaians.
He said the exercise, which has the theme: “Plant Trees, Save Environment,” was also to serve as a wake-up call to Ghanaians to see the urgent need in planting trees to save the environment.
Benefits of trees
According to Mr Seidu, it is an established fact that trees cool the environment and help purify the air and that people who live in areas which have many trees tend to live longer compared with those who live in the industrial areas of the country.
Mr Seidu said the exercise was the maiden edition, and he hopes that it could become a bi-annual or annual event even when these service persons have completed their service.
He called on the government and other stakeholders to support the initiative in order for it to be extended to other industrial parts of the country.
The Director and Founder of the Ama Odame Okyere Foundation, Nana Ama Odame Okyere, said her foundation decided to partner the EPA service persons because the two organisations shared the same goals of preserving the environment.
Ama Odame Foundation
Ama Odame Okyere was a second runner-up in the 2014 Ghana’s Most Beautiful Show. She participated in the Miss Earth contest on promoting the environment.
She stated that trees did a lot of good for the environment, and so it was important that Ghanaians would see the need to plant more trees, even in their homes.
“Trees control flood, they purify the air...they even act as noise absorbers. So planting more trees is the best way through which we can make our environment safe,” Ms Odame emphasised.
She also advised Ghanaians to desist from throwing rubbish into gutters, saying: “When we dump refuse into the gutters, we will suffer when it rains..”
The Acting Director of the Accra West Region of EPA, Mrs Sally Biney, lauded the group for taking the initiative to protect the environment.
She said the Ga Central office of the EPA would collaborate with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to care for the trees to ensure that the objectives of planting them were met.