Tamale, April 13, GNA- Mr Charles Bintin, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister on Tuesday called for the active involvement of chiefs and other Traditional rulers in the fight against bushfires in the country. He said if chiefs and elders as well as opinion leaders must be given the mandate to deal with people whose acts leads to bush burning.

Mr Bintin said this at the inauguration of a seven-member Northern Regional Fire Service Council in Tamale.

The establishment of the Council is to decentralise and download the functions of the Regional Fire Service Committee to the region. The regional council would also Co-ordinate and mobilise resources for fire fighting and prevention, and to advise the Fire Service on matters relating to the functions of the service in the region.

Mr Bintin said the region was always subjected to bush burning, depriving the public and their animals food and water, which he said was worsening the poverty situation in the region.

The Deputy Minister, who is the chairman of the council regretted that the National campaign against bush fire by the rural fire department by the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) had not yielded any fruitful dividend and called on the council to ensure that bush fires were eliminated in the region.

Mr Alfred Asiama-Sampong, from the Attorney-General's Department, who inaugurated the Council expressed the hope that with the inauguration of the council, they would remain vibrant and work hard in ensuring that they achieved their set goals.

Some of the committee members called on the government to consider districts, which are far away and equip them with communication gadgets to enhance their work.

Mr Mathew Adombire, a representative of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and a member of the council appealed to the Ghana National Fire Service to find an alternative means of getting water for fire fighting rather than using treated water.

The National Chief Fire Officer, Mr Emmanuel Atenga indicated that the service was finding possible ways of getting untreated water for fire fighting and pointed out that finding water to fight fire depended on the location of the fire outbreak.