Let’s Be Protectors Of Our Environment – GIP
Sunyani, February 09, 2023
The Sunyani Zone of the Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP) has called for collaboration and a collective actions and activities to protect the wetlands and the entire environment.
“City planning is a shared responsibility, let all get involve in activities to protect the environment and be protectors of our wetlands”.
Planner Ata-Era A. James, the Sunyani Zonal Chairman of the GIP made the call during a public sensitization and awareness creation to commemorate the World Wetlands Day on February 2, 2023.
The GIP’s public awareness exercise highlighted the urgent need to prioritize environmental safety and the wetlands restoration.
The GIP teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to embark on the sensitization exercise under the theme: “Wetlands Restoration, The Time Is Now”.
Pln. Ata-Era said the World Wetlands Day celebrated annually aims at raising global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for both human and the planet.
Speaking in an interview with the media, Pln. Gifty Nyarko, the Physical Planning Director at the Sunyani West Municipal Assembly and the Sunyani Zonal Secretary of the GIP observed “the high increasing usage of farming chemicals, pollution, encroachments and continues filling of the wetlands for building are harmful practices to our wetlands”
She worried that there is high rate of wetland and water bodies pollution with solid waste and “that is nuisance to the environment which must stop and be a thing of the past”.
According to studies, wetlands ecological services contribute about $47.4 trillion to human health, happiness and security annually, hence the GIP undertook the public education to increase people’s knowledge and understanding of these critically important ecosystems, she stated.
Pln. Nyarko therefore called on the Assemblies, relevant stakeholders in charge and the law enforcement agencies to recognize the importance of wetlands and as matter of urgency activate and enforce the laws to deal with perpetrators.
Pln. Franklin Yangfomenga Walier, the Zonal Vice-Chair emphasized it is time for the general public to see the crucial need for wetlands conservation, therefore encouraged actions and activities to reverse the rapid loss of wetlands.
In further development, Pln. Anthonia Ayamga, the GIP Organizer, Sunyani Zone added that the wetlands and the environment are natural products and valuable for recreational purposes, flood protection, water quality improvement and shoreline erosion control.
Some of these important services of wetlands include providing habitat for fish and wildlife as well as storing floodwaters, she said.
Writer’s email: ttchrietoph1@gmail.com