The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) has expressed concern about the indiscriminate cutting down of trees for timber, which must stop to save the environment from further depletion.

Dominic Azumah, Member of Parliament for the Garu Constituency in the Upper East Region who expressed the concern in Daboya when he led a 10-member Parliamentary Select Committee to the area called on chiefs and indigenes to fight the menace.

The Parliamentary Select Committee is on a 5-day working visit to some selected assemblies and other departments under the Local Government to see challenges and progress and to provide advice to the sector ministry.

Mr Azumah who is the chairman of the committee said the North Gonja District had a lot of prospects and expressed regret that the people were allowing some unscrupulous individuals outside the district to engage in logging while the people gained next to nothing in the proceeds.

He said, “Everybody in this district should rise up against this illegal chainsaw operation, which is depleting the environment. I even hear cocoa can do well in parts of this district and it is important for us to harness the potential of the area instead of allowing private business people to destroy our future”, he said.

Mr Azumah revealed that government has awarded contracts to some contractors to build residential and office accommodation to some of the newly created districts, which the North Gonja district was one of them and advised the assembly to devise ways of generating revenue to embark on self-funded projects.

Sorku Kasim Yahuza, DCE for North Gonja enumerated the challenges facing the district and appealed to the committee to channel those problems to the appropriate quarters for assistance.

He appealed to government to consider constructing a bridge on the White Volta River in Daboya to ease the transportation problems from the area to other parts of the region.

Mr Yahuza said land had already been acquired for the construction of permanent district offices and residential accommodation and expressed hope that central government would honour its promises and release funds immediately for development of the district.