Okada and the degraded lands of Yahoman

If the directive to arrest persons who flout the law on commercial use of motorbikes for transport is to be enforced to the letter, residents at Yahoman, a community in Ga West Municipality would be deeply troubled.

Due to the poor conditions of their roads caused by sand winning, commercial use of motorbikes is the most comfortable and affordable means of transport.

According to Ebenezer Sackey, a teacher at the Christ In You Academy Primary School, their (commercial motorbike operators) charges range between GH¢1 and GH¢3 depending on one’s destination.

“They charge GH¢6 if you are going to Amasaman, a relatively long distance from Yahoman,” Mr. Sackey told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday.

They would not like to waste precious time to chat with the GNA about their business since in the Ghanaian popular parlance: “Time is money.”

The riders, together with their clients, and sometimes their little bundled cargoes carried on board, could be seen briskly but carefully traversing the undulating and bumpy roads.

A resident normally waits for some few minutes at designated spots for the reliable motorbiker to show up.

Mr. Sackey said they were operated mainly by local residents.

The Ga West Municipality in general has undergone the worst forms of land degradation in recent times due to sand winning and excessive wood fuel harvesting.

Several hundred hectares of arable land has been degraded with several deep sand pits which serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the area.

Apart from sand winning, harvesting of trees for firewood and charcoal making are the main occupations of the local people, especially for women in Meyikpor and Sorrunu-Korpe communities.

Speaking on tree planting exercise to replace the adverse effects of excessive wood fuel harvesting at Yahoman, Nii Anjumajan Kwashi Obo Yaho I, newly installed Chief of the community, told the GNA that he had pledged to stop the illegal sand winning and indiscriminate felling of trees.

He underscored the importance of vegetative cover stressing that, trees planted close to buildings served as windbreaks during rainstorms.

Nii Yaho I, related an incident where a rainstorm destroyed other buildings and structures closer to his house but his property stood untouched, due to a mango tree he had strategically planted in the middle of his compound.

Apart from efforts by traditional authorities to rehabilitate the land and to ensure ecological restoration, the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme together with the support of Integrated Development in Focus, an NGO, is to undertake land restoration and livelihood intervention activities in six deprived communities in the Ga West including Yahoman.

It is said that more than five hectares of degraded land had been rehabilitated and placed under sustainable land management, and 42 women farmers have been so far trained in the cultivation of tradable agricultural products, woodlot plantation and agro-forestry.

Currently, women farmers of Yahoman community harvest and sell eight maxi-bags of black eye beans and 20 maxi-bags of moringa leaves every quarter.**