MMDAs urged to constitute District Fire Service Communities

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Kwasi Baafour Awuah, the Savannah Regional Commander of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to constitute District Fire Service Committees to help deal with fire-related disasters.

He said sections 15 and 16 of the GNFS Act 537 required MMDAs to form fire committees to deal with fire-related disasters and environmental issues.

Mr Awuah, who said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Bole, noted that Municipal and District Assemblies in the Savannah Region were yet to form the committees.

He urged the Assemblies in the Region to provide GNFS with funds to support fire volunteers to help curb bushfires.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer noted that bushfires, which were destructive to the environment and human lives, could be stopped if the appropriate authorities supported the GNFS.

“We have been talking about it but people seem not to realise that climate change is not just happening because the climate just wants to change, but human action is what is inducing climate change,” Mr Daniel Banuoku, Deputy Executive Director, Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD) said.

He expressed worry that northern Ghana was at the peril of all development challenges, including health, nutrition and poverty.

He emphasised the need for support to help stop the menace and urged traditional authorities to sensitize the communities on the effects of bushfires.

“I believe that when the Traditional Authorities and community people decide to take action and set an example, arrest somebody and put the person behind bars for burning the bush, people will take this matter much more seriously.

“We need to intensify the education to appeal to the hearts of the people to let them see the practical impact of climate change and that it is as a result of our actions that we are getting these results to ourselves,” Mr Bnuoku stated.

The Environmental Activist said they would work with Traditional Authorities, the media and other stakeholders to deepen the sensitisation on the effects of bush burning and to get the people to take the needed action at the community level to stop the practice.