Regional News of Thursday, 29 March 2007

Source: GNA

Change your habits to conserve energy - Official

Accra, March 29, GNA - Mr. Festus Courage Agya-Yao, an official of the Wildlife Division of the Ministry Lands and Forestry, on Thursday urged Ghanaians to stop dissipating energy and change their habits to enable the country to conserve electricity to avoid a crises situation in the future.

He said, the present energy crisis was giving way for the use of thermal energy, which involves the consumption of fuel that would generate smoke and destroy the ozone layer which, in turn cause environmental and health hazards.

Speaking at the official inauguration ceremony of the Globen Wildlife Club in Accra on the theme; "The importance of Environmental Preservations: The Role of Teachers Pupils and the Community," Mr. Agya-Yao, an expert at the Accra Zoo, said it was important to preserve the environment since it was the collective home for humans and animals. "Now, human population is increasing so fast that various resources have been overused resulting in degradation of the environment causing the death of plants and animals," he said.

He expressed the need to protect the environment by preserving some of the resources in the form of forest and wildlife reserves, saying that many of the resources were renewable and the proper use of them would always regenerate them for future use.

"We have reached the stage where, as individuals we must develop environmentally friendly lifestyles to support the work of NGOs and the government to save the earth and protect the environment for the sake of humanity," he added.

Naa Adorkor Saka, Regional Coordinator of the Wildlife Society, who officially launched the Globen School Wildlife Club, called on the executives to promote environmental education and create awareness on the dangers of environmental degradation, pollution, excessive hunting and other harmful activities to the environment.

Mrs Gloria Obeng, Proprietress of Globen School, thanked the officials of the Wildlife Society of Ghana and called for the assistance of parents and teachers in the success story of the club.