Tree planting exercise held to protect Tano River

The riparian tree planting exercise of the 2017 World Environmental Day celebration in the Brong Ahafo Region has been held at the upstream of the Tano River at Techiman.

The regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the Water Resources Commission (WRC), organised the tree planting exercise with the aim of restoring the degraded forest cover of that section of the river.

It was also expected to help reduce encroachment of the buffer to improve water quality through sedimentation and nutrient filtration, flood control, regulate the water temperature, enhance aesthetics and improve the micro-climate.

Some chiefs and elders of the Techiman Traditional Council and students of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Junior High School at Techiman took part in the exercise.

The World Environmental Day has become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations (UN) stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

The day was also marked to create an opportunity for everyone to appreciate the responsibility to care for the earth and to become agents of change to help bring effective and positive changes to solve environmental issues.

As a result of the current challenges facing water resource management in the country, the EPA decided to focus on the sector for the national celebration of the day on the theme; “Connecting Ghanaians to nature from North to South”.

Connecting to environment

Speaking at the ceremony, the Brong Ahafo Regional Director of the EPA, Dr Francis Nyagbenu, underscored the need for Ghanaians to connect positively to nature to safeguard the environment, especially water resources.

He stated that the pollution of water resources, for instance, posed a serious threat to the sustainable development of the country and implored all stakeholders to work towards efficient management of water resources.

He said the country’s water resources were under serious threat from human activities such as illegal mining, dumping of solid waste into rivers, removal of forest cover, as well as farming along the banks of rivers.

Such activities, he said, were deteriorating the quality and quantities of affected water bodies, and added that the Tano River at Techiman was not an exception to the human activities.