Nana Akuamoah Tannor II, Chief of Donkorkrom, has expressed worry about the indiscriminate logging and charcoal burning that is fast destroying and degrading the forests and land of the Afram Plains.

The Chief expressed fear that the Afram Plains might not experience rainfall in the near future since the indiscriminate felling of trees and burnings were causing draught and affecting climatic changes in the area.

He has therefore called on the government to urgently intervene to save the forests and agricultural activities in the area.

“Indiscriminate charcoal burning has become the order of the day, all rosewoods in this area have been cut down and now timber contractors have turned their attention on the Onyina and the Sanya woods which they cut indiscriminately, destroying our lands and farms,” he said.

Nana Tannor expressed his sentiments when the Chiefs and Elders at Donkorkrom, Atakora and Asikasu Traditional Areas met with Mr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, Eastern Regional Minister at Donkorkrom during his familiarization tour to the Kwahu Afram Plains North District.

The Ghana News Agency (GNA)-STAR Ghana Media Auditing and Tracking of Development at district level team was part of the Regional Minister’s entourage.

The Chief also decried the state of underdevelopment in the Afram Plains North as a result of which teachers declined postings to the area “because they see it as a punishment to be posted here, and it has affected the standard of education here.”

While expressing gratitude to the government for giving them a Community Senior High School (SHS), Nana Tannor also appealed to government to convert one of the two SHS in the District into a teacher training college to train indigenous citizens as teachers for the schools.

He also called on the central government to provide a pontoon on the Volta Lake to transport traders from Agodeke to the Volta Region to boost economic activities in the District.

Mr Boasiako-Sekyere assured the Chiefs and Elders of the three traditional areas that the government was committed to developing the Afram plains.

He also pledged to work within his means to get a pontoon at the Agodeke landing site to boost revenue generation of the Kwahu Afram Plains North for its development.