President John Mahama has ordered the traditional leaders in the Akropong-Akuapem area to stop selling bits and pieces of the Akuapem Mountains to real estate developers for residential purposes.

He says the practice risks causing an environmental disaster in the future if the “wanton sale” of lands on the mountain continues unabated.

"I urge all of you here to cherish the nature that God has blessed you with – these beautiful mountains with peaceful vegetation – and that reminds me, to stop the unbridled sale of the Mountain to people for residences," Mahama told a durbar of chiefs and people of the Akropong-Akuapem area when he joined them to celebrate the Odwira festival.

“We need to preserve the forests on the Mountains. If you strip all the Mountains of the vegetation, one day we will have mudslides in this country that will kill a lot of people," the President warned.

He said: “I’ve seen it in Brazil, I’ve seen it in several places where they just developed townships on Mountain sides. What happens is you expose the vegetation, and when it rains, water seeps into the group, and when the ground becomes too saturated and cannot hold, it will come down with all those houses.”

“And so the EPA, the traditional authority, the municipal assembly, all of you must be up and doing and make sure that the wanton sale of all the Akuapem Mountains is halted. We need some of those vegetation and forest to continue to maintain the climate you have here. To cut down all the trees and everything, you’ll not have the same cool conditions that Akuapem is proud of,” he said.