Accra, Jan. 22, GNA - Mr Abubakar-Saddique Boniface, MP for Salaga, on Thursday called for the enforcement of laws on bushfire to stop the massive destruction it was causing to agriculture and rendering people destitute.
He said until bushfire was eradicated it would be difficult for people to invest in some areas of agriculture and especially farmers, who had been victims of fire disasters.
Mr Boniface, who is also the Deputy Minister of Tourism and the Beautification of the Capital City, commenting on the fire that razed two fishing villages of Godome and Botoku in the Salaga District about two weeks ago in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.
About 250 have been rendered homeless as a result of the disaster. Fishing gear, domestic animals and property destroyed run into millions of cedis.
Mr Boniface said the fire broke out when the adults were out on their farms and some went fishing leaving only children behind when a strong harmattan wind blew a ranging fire from afar and within minutes about 55 thatched houses were burnt.
He appealed to philanthropists and nongovernmental organisations to go to the aid of the people, who were putting up in the open and were without clothes.
Mr Boniface said one would have thought with the amount of education on bushfires through the media and appeals by politicians, the dangerous practice of starting bushfires would have ended by now. He said the factors leading to bushfires were so many and that if those factors could not be removed the law on it must be rigorously enforced. 22 Jan. 04
