The Obuasi Municipal Assembly is taking steps to roll out a programme to plant trees and grasses in open spaces in the Obuasi township to beautify the mining town.
The move also seeks to contribute to national and global efforts to combat climate change and promote healthy environment to ensure quality air in the atmosphere.
Mr Elijah Adansi-Bonah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), who made this known, was speaking during a tree planting exercise to mark this year’s Green Ghana Day.
Introduced in 2021, the Green Ghana Initiative seeks to create enhanced national awareness of the necessity for collective action towards restoration of degraded landscape in the country and inculcate in youth the value of planting and nurturing trees and their associated benefits.
The theme for this year’s edition was “Mobilizing for a Greener Future.”
The MCE said the Assembly would work with the Obuasi office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) as well as the Physical planning Department to identify open spaces in the Municipality to grow grasses and plant trees.
Touching on the importance of the programme to the people of Obuasi, Mr. Adansi-Bonah said Obuasi, as a mining town, had seen huge portions of its green vegetation depleted as a result of both legal and illegal mining activities.
“Due to this, a conscious effort is needed to be taken to reduce, if not to stop it, hence we deem the introduction of the Green Ghana Day by the Government as a timely intervention,” he stated.
He said the Assembly had put in place concrete measures to ensure that seedlings planted were nurtured till their maturity.
The MCE also disclosed plans by the Assembly to deal with those who indulged in indiscriminate felling of trees, adding that the Assembly was in the process of reviewing its by-laws to incorporate punitive actions against those who destroyed the vegetation cover.
The Senior Manager Sustainability, Anglogold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, Mr. Emmanuel Baidoo, said the company in support of the Green Ghana Initiative by the Government would grow 1000 trees every year.
“AGA together with AGA Malaria Control and other stakeholders in the communities are committed to plant 1000 trees every year and this year, we are aiming to scale it up to 2000.
Mr. Henry Yeboah, the Supervisor of the Obuasi office of the Forestry Commission, said due to the successful implementation of the programme last year, Government decided to increase the seedlings from 5 million to 20 million.
He gave the seedlings planted in Obuasi in 2021, a 70 per cent survival rate and promised to continue to monitor those that were given out this year.
He said Obuasi had received 19,000 seedlings to be given out freely to individuals, churches and organizations and advised beneficiaries to maintain and protect them.