Accra, Mr Nettesheim Kwame Damoah, Acting Regional Director of Fisheries Commission in the Central Region, says the Commission does not support any form of river pollution at Yeji in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region.
He said there was a need to protect the Volta Lake, where most of the fishing activities were done, especially from the Yeji Area.
Mr Damoah was speaking during the Civil Service Organisation in Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development (CSO-RISE) National Stakeholder engagement and urged District Assemblies to ensure the menace was curtailed.
‘Per the report, open defecation and washing of cars were done directly into the lake, where tilapia and catfish were produced,’ he said.
He said this did not augur well for production and increased the pH levels in the lake, killing the fish, hence the need to protect the lake.
Dr Damoah advised stakeholders to liaise with the Fisheries Director at Yeji to ensure that he also liaised with the Assembly to involve in some practices that would conform to the acceptable rules and regulations associated with fish production.
Alhaji Bawa Musah, the District Coordinating Director, Pru East District said with the various forms of pollution as far as the volta lake was concerned, they would collaborate with the chiefs to put a stop to this menace.
He said there were public toilet facilities at the Harbour market and the ‘Morocco’ park which was a few meters away from the Volta Lake, ‘that notwithstanding, the Assembly is already taking steps to get an additional one closer to the Volta Lake.’
Alhaji Musah said getting a place for the construction closer to the lake was a problem, but they would do all things possible to get it done.
He said open defecation was an offence punishable by law and that the Assembly had now commissioned its court recently, hence, the prosecution would commence reducing the challenge.
Alhaji Musah said they engaged men and women in the market as major stakeholders in sensitisation programmes to know the threats the menace posed to them.
Mrs Mary Tobbin Osei, Team Leader for the CSO-RISE programme, said the programme was funded by the European Union as a bilateral programme with the Ministry of Finance, specifically with the National Authorisation Officers’ Office at the Ministry.
She said it was a five-year programme that had been implemented by four Civil Society Organisations: Action Aid Ghana, Center for Local Government Advocacy, and two others.
Mrs Osei said the programme was being implemented in all the regions in Ghana to promote sustainable agriculture, to promote decent work and employment, social protection interventions, and climate change.
She said the CSO-RISE project was coming to an end this year and that some of the advocacy issues identified at the local level required national attention.
‘So, from the Technical Assistance Team that is based in the Ministry, we thought that it will be good to organise a stakeholder engagement to bring all the relevant government agencies and service providers together to engage them on the issues,’ she added.
Mrs Osei said the issues identified and the recommendations made would be put together in a communique that would be publicised through the Ministry
Source: Ghana News Agency