Donkorkrom Chief decries illegal logging

Nana Akuamoah Tannor II, Chief of Donkorkrom, has expressed worry about indiscriminate logging and charcoal burning at Kwahu Afram Plains North and said this was destroying the vegetation.

The chief expressed fear that the Afram Plains might not experience rainfall in the near future since the indiscriminate felling of trees and burnings could cause severe draught in the area.

Nana Akuamoah Tannor said this when the chiefs and elders of Donkorkrom, Atakora and Asikasu Traditional areas met Mr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, the Eastern Regional Minister, at Donkorkrom during his tour of the Kwahu Afram Plains North District.

He has therefore called on the government to intervene to save the forests and agricultural activities in the area.

“Indiscriminate charcoal burning has become the order of the day, all rosewoods in this area have been cut down and now timber contractors have turned their attention on the Onyina and the Sanya woods which they cut indiscriminately and destroying our lands and farms,” he said.

The chief also expressed displeasure at the state of underdevelopment in the Kwahu Afram Plains North as a result of which teachers decline postings to the area “because they see it as a punishment to be posted here, and it has affected the standard of education here.”

While expressing gratitude to the government for giving them a Community Senior High School (SHS), he also appealed to government to convert one of the two SHS in the district into a teacher training college to train indigenous citizens as teachers for the schools there.

He also called for assistance from the government to provide a pontoon on the Volta Lake to transport traders from Agodeke to the Volta Region to boost economic activities in the District.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako assured the chiefs and elders of the three traditional areas that the government was committed to do all it could to develop the Afram Plains.

He also pledged to work towards the provision of a pontoon at the Agodeke landing site to boost revenue generation of the Kwahu Afram Plains North District Assembly.