The increase in cattle roaming the streets of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, is thwarting the government’s investment in greening the city.
According to the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, the animals have destroyed many of the trees planted in open spaces and medians of roads.
For this reason, government has intended to recruit experts in cattle handling to deal with the menace which also poses security risk.
Launching a Climate Change Club in the Nhyiaeso constituency to help plant more trees in the area, Mr. Osei Mensah disclosed that the initiative will be led by the Regional Coordinating Council in recruiting the experts.
The Minister has been telling Akoma FM’s Benjamin Aidoo, that the activities of the cattle is making the resources spent by the government to green the city go waste.
“We’ve tried to re-green Kumasi to bring back the garden city that we all knew. Unfortunately, most often we are disturbed by cattle. When you plant the trees, they will go in and destroy everything. All the trees that we planted, royal palm trees we planted last year, almost all of them are destroyed. This time, we are going to take stringent action against the owners of the cattle,” the Minister stated.
According to the Minister, they are going to employ these experts to look after the trees, their job role, to arrest any cattle they find destroying the trees.
“He also hinted of extending the contract if need be, so they can continue till the planted trees become of age where no cattle can destroy them.
“We are going to engage them, we’ll pay them, and that will be their responsibility to ensure that the trees that we plant will not be consumed by or destroyed by the cattle. We will pay them during the period that is for a whole year and if it’s possible to have adequate resources to sustain, then we sustain them the following year too,” he added.
Government allocated a total of GHC2.5million for the Greening Ghana Initiative, an amount the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources found inadequate.
As efforts are being made to deal with the impediment, the office of the Nhyiaeso Member of Parliament has instituted a Climate Change Club to help plant more trees in the area.
The club will ensure planting and development of trees in the median of roads and open spaces in the community.
The Nhyiaeso MP is currently planting 100,000 trees along the major highways in his constituency.
Member of Parliament, Dr. Stephen Amoah, is advocating for strict adherence of the laws aside from getting the respective constituencies involved.
A field assessment report of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources shows an average of 72 per cent survival rate of trees grown in 2022 as part of Green Ghana Day as compared to the 81 per cent survival rate in 2021.
With additional files from Benjamin Aidoo|AkomaFM|Kumasi
