Koforidua May 31 GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday expressed worry about how the environment is being degraded through illegal mining and tree felling.

He therefore called for concerted efforts from chiefs to save the environment from further degradation. Addressing a durbar in Koforidua as part of his three 96day tour of the Eastern Region, President Mills indicated that much as the Government would not prevent people from earning a living, it would ensure that proper procedures were followed if individuals or groups wanted to engage in mining.

He said future generations would not forgive 93us if we sit down unconcern for water bodies to be polluted through illegal mining and the forests depleted by illegal chainsaw operators". President Mills reiterated the commitment of his administration to ensure that Ghanaians lived in dignity and therefore called for hard work from the citizenry towards the Better Ghana Agenda. He said the government inherited many challenges when it took office in 2009 but with hard work those problems were being addressed. Daasebre Dr Oti Boateng, President of the Regional House of Chiefs, on behalf of his colleagues presented a stool to President Mills as a symbol of his humility. He appealed to the government to provide a new hospital in Koforidua so that the present over-aged facility could be turned into a municipal hospital.

Daasebre Oti Boateng requested for the provision of a public University in the Region, giving the assurance that the chiefs would be willing to release lands towards the projects. He also asked for the completion of the housing units at Akwadum, a suburb of Koforidua to provide accommodation for about 500 workers. Dr Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi, Regional Minister, said since assuming power nearly two and half years ago, government functionaries in the Region assisted by the private sector had worked with zeal and commitment to improve the status of the people, especially those who live in the rural areas.

He said government had within two and half years undertaken the construction of more than 470 projects in the Region with a total value of nearly GH¢61,695,000 adding that more than 80 per cent of those projects were in the education and health sectors. "In the education sector, 263 educational structures at an estimated cost of GH¢54.52 million were undertaken since 2009." Dr Apea-Kubi said the projects included school under trees and emergency intervention programmes. Others are dormitories, libraries, Information, Communication and Technology Centres, administration blocks, dinning halls and teachers' Flats. 31 May 11