District assemblies asked to allocate funds for environmental protection

Sunyani July 4, GNA - Mr Yaw Adjei-Duffour, Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, on Thursday advised District Assemblies to district assemblies to allocate funds for environmental protection, including the prevention of erosion. The Deputy Regional Minister asked the assemblies to ensure the prevention of erosion of surroundings of buildings and other structures they constructed. ''We have no choice but to ensure that we preserve the environment for generations yet unborn,'' Mr Adjei-Duffour said. He was speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop in Sunyani on: Strategic Environmental Assessment (ESA) of District Medium Term Development Plan based on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).

The governments of Ghana and the Netherlands and the Department of Foreign and International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom sponsored the workshop. The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly organized it. The workshop was aimed at assessing the environmental risks and opportunities associated with the implementation of policies of Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other bodies identified by the GPRS. It would come out with sustainable District Development Plans to ensure the preservation of the environment for the continuous improvement in the living conditions of the people. The participants included District Coordinating Directors; District Planning Officers; District Budget Officers and District Finance Officers from the 13 districts in the Region.

Mr Adjei-Duffour appealed to district chief executives to support the SEA exercise in their respective areas for the achievement of the objectives of the workshop. Professor G. Gyan-Baffuor, Director-General of NDPC, noted that there was "a causal relationship" between environmental degradation and poverty. He said it was, therefore, necessary to formulate sound policies and programmes to assist in reducing poverty for sustainable development.

Prof Gyan-Baffuor noted that wealth creation depended on the availability of natural resources and their proper management. He said there was the need to ensure that policies, plans, programmes, and projects at all levels were pro-poor and pro-environment and that the SEA was a methodology for achieving those goals. Prof. Gyan-Baffour stated that the workshop was expected to equip the participants, being the key officers at the districts, with the necessary tools to enable them to review their medium term development plans for effective implementation, saying, in the process they would also be expected to identify the major areas of priority in their districts.