Billaw, UWR, April 25, GNA - Alhaji Issahaque Salia, Upper West Regional Minister, has appealed to traditional rulers to ceaselessly work towards sustaining peace to engender rapid socio-economic development of their communities.

He said the maintenance of peace was what the government needed most from traditional rulers to enable it to implement its development policies and programmes.

He, therefore, pleaded with the traditional authorities, opinion leaders and all other stakeholders in the communities not to fail the government in that regard.

Alhaji Salia made the appeal at the second anniversary celebration of the installation of Billaw Kuoro Manoh Hillah Forkor at Billaw in the Lambussie Traditional Area, on Sunday. He encouraged traditional rulers to mobilise their people to undertake development projects in their communities to complement government's development efforts.

The communities would not see the desired development as quickly as they would expect if all the development needs of the people were left for government alone to provide, he cautioned. "Traditional rulers should also learn to build just and disciplined societies that the future generation would come and appreciate and not leave them worse off than they came and met," Alhaji Salia advised.

Alhaji Salia expressed disappointment that the local government structures in the region were not functioning properly and called for the active participation of traditional rulers to make their functions operational at the grassroots.

He urged the people to avoid politicizing local government structures but see them as unifying entities that would bring them together to confront their developmental challenges. He said the Regional Coordinating Council was committed to ensuring the efficient operation of sub-district structures under the district assemblies.

He pointed out that with the effective operation of the structures, environmental degradation, cattle rustling, disease outbreak, low school enrolment and drop-out challenges would be addressed.

Alhaji Salia said the Regional Coordinating Council was not happy about the mass migration of the youth in the Lambussie District to Southern Ghana and advised them to rather take advantage of government pro-poor interventions to better their lots. "The Accelerated Agricultural Modernization and Industrial Development under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) needs to be fully tapped to reduce migration of the youth," the Regional Minister advised.

He announced that the Lambussie/Karni District would benefit from piped water system and boreholes fitted with hand pumps as well as the rehabilitation of the Lambussie Small Town Water System and Hamile Town Water System under the Sustainable Rural Water Supply Project.

Additionally, 55 boreholes would be drilled in the district under the project to provide potable water to communities that were without boreholes while those communities that were faced with challenges of water borne disease would also benefit from the package. Alhaji Salia urged the people to use the occasion to rekindle their self-help spirit and challenged citizens of Billaw residing outside the region to support development projects at home to improve the living conditions of their people. 25 April 11