A large portion of Forest Reserves in the Juaboso District of the Western Region has been destroyed by a bush fire outbreak which has ravaged several cocoa farms and other plantations within the various farming communities in the area.
Despite the intensity of the devastating fires, which have been unceasing for over three weeks now, affecting several acres of cocoa farms in communities such as Sayerano, Agyemndiem, Nkwanta Forest, Asawenso, Adwumnu, Boodi, Benchema, Nkwantaso and Weweso among others, no effort has been made by the District Fire Officers, the District Chief Executive and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Hon Kwabena Mintah Akandoh to address the problem.
The damage will adversely affect agricultural productivity, not just in the area, but in Ghana as a whole.
Some residents within the constituency, who spoke to the DAILY HERITAGE, expressed shock over the “insensitive attitude” on the part of the MP for the constituency.
The MP, who is a native of Juaboso, according to the aggrieved farmers, has for the past three weeks since the onset of the inferno failed to visit the scene to assess the level of damage, and also failed to use his office as a deputy minister to call for assistance from the regional fire service to fight the fires.
The District Fire Service personnel, who could have been in a better position to fight the inferno, according to the paper's sources, are poorly resourced. The unit has no fire tender and other important fire equipment to battle the raging fires.
This, according to residents, has made the situation worse and the farmers have no other option than to fight the bush fire themselves, but to no avail.
“We voted for him to fight for the good of the district in parliament, but if he thinks he can sit on any radio station and talk against us, the farmers at such a critical moment as this, we know what to do. If Akandoh can harbour such a notion that cocoa farmers can set their own farms on fire for political reasons, we too will prove him wrong very soon,” an upset farmer stated.
Adding her voice, the aspiring parliamentary candidate on the ticket of New Patriotic Party, Madam Martha Kwayie Manu also bemoaned the situation as very sad and pathetic.
”From the look of things, Hon Kwabena Mintah Akondoh does not care about the livelihood of the very people who voted for him to be MP,” she indicated.
According to Madam Manu, it is clear that government is asleep since for weeks now, the forest reserve at Juaboso has been blazing in flames, but no one seems to be concerned.
“As a country that depends on agriculture, it is hard to understand that the government and the sector ministries responsible for protecting our natural resources are waiting for the whole forest to be burnt down by fire before they come in to help.
“As residents of Juaboso constituency and citizens of Ghana, we demand that as a matter of urgency the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Agriculture Minister come in to immediately take steps to save the forest,” she demanded.
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