Bawku (U/E), Feb. 2, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Nyaaba, Environmental Protection Officer of the Bawku Municipality, has called on the people of Bawku and the entire nation to cultivate good attitudes towards the protection of the environment.

He said the environment was the only place that could inhabit nature and that there was the need to be environmentally friendly. Mr Nyaaba noted that the cause of environmental degradation in the municipality was a result of the negative attitude by members of the community towards the environment.

He indicated that bush burning, indiscriminate felling of trees, littering and disposal of waste were the major acts that degraded the environment. Mr Nyaaba made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday in Bawku to sensitize the general public on the need to protect the environment. He said sachet water producers were another threat to the environment explaining that the companies produced the water sachets without putting measures in place to prevent them from being littered around. Mr Nyaaba expressed worry about the situation and said if care was not taken it would get out of hands. Mr Nyaaba said the Environmental Protection Agency was being challenged with so many problems such as logistics and human resource. He lamented that the municipal office was understaffed and due to that it had not been able to meet its mandate such as monitoring and preventing bush burning in the municipality and its surroundings. He appealed to government and development partners to support the agency with logistics to enable it to perform its constitutional role effectively.

Alhaji Mustapha Ayamga, Chairman of the Bawku Sachet Water Producers Association, told the GNA that due to the instability of prices of raw materials, producers had not been able to make profit that would enable them to pay their levies and contribute to controlling littering in the municipality. Alhaji Ayamga said due to the protracted conflict in the area members of the association complained of low patronage of the water and that among other things had been an issue hindering their progress.