A SEVERE bush fire, which raged for three days, has destroyed 12 houses and farms at Tsrikasa and its environs, near Okagyakrom in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region.
No casualty was recorded, but the property of 123 people, including foodstuffs and livestock worth thousands of Ghana cedis were destroyed.
The disaster prompted the Association of Jasikan District Civil Society Organisations (AJADSCO) to hold an emergency meeting, calling on the various district assemblies, as a matter of urgency, to come out with measures to enforce laws on bush fires and chainsaw operations.
Participants at the meeting were representatives of the Jasikan District Assembly, the Ghana Police Service, the National Commission for Civic Education, the Judicial Service of Ghana, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Disaster Management Organisation, Ghana National Fire Service and the Forestry Department.
According to the Chairman of AJADSCO, Alhaji Issaka Braimah, the strict enforcement of the bye-laws would reduce bush fires and the destruction of the forest.
He said bush fires had been so rampant in the area to the extent that the region had been tagged as leaders in bush fire nationwide.
Mr Braimah said the warning on the harmful effects of bush fires had not been heeded to, resulting in the disaster happening on a yearly basis.
An official of the Forestry Commission, Mr Anthony Ako, drew the participants’ attention to the Timber Resources Management Regulations, 1998, which enumerated a number of restrictions on the use of chainsaw machines.
Mr Ako reminded the participants that “no person shall use a chainsaw machine for felling trees or converting them into timber, unless the machine had been registered with the district manager of the Forestry Commission”.
He further stated that the regulation also prohibited the use of a chainsaw whether registered or unregistered to convert timber into lumber or other forest products for sale, exchange or for any commercial purpose.
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