The Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly has announced an immediate ban on sand winning and chainsaw operations in the district to stop the massive degradation of the area’s environment.

Mr Kwaku Oppong-Kyekyeku Kaakyire, the District Chief Executive, said they were determined to ensure that the right things were done to protect the vegetation.

He said the ban would only be lifted after the assembly had put in place adequate structures and mechanisms to properly regulate the activities of those operators and described the scale of the destruction of farm lands as sickening and inaction could prove disastrous.

The GNA had visited the area under STAR-Ghana’s media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put a spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly the rural population.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good governance.

Mr Oppong-Kyekyeku warned of the arrest and prosecution of those who would ignore the ban.

“There is no way the assembly would allow people to do things their own way to put the entire society at greater risk,” he said and added that it was in the people’s own interest to ensure sustainable management of the natural resources to bring benefits not only to the present but the future generation.

The DCE said they would go to every length to make sure that only people granted permits by the assembly based on the submission of clearly defined reclamation plans were allowed to extract sand in the area.

This, he said, would significantly help to bring some level of sanity and called for the total support from the people by reporting offenders for appropriate punitive action to be taken against them.