The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission has described illegal activities at the Atiwa Forest Reserve located in the eastern region of Ghana as a National Security risk.
The Atiwa Forest reserve provides residents of Accra with about 60% of its portable drinking water as Rivers Birim, Densu and Ayensu take their sources from the forest range.
However activities of illegal loggers and miners are threatening these water sources.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission Samuel Afari Dartey has warned this could have a far reaching adverse effect on water supplied to the capital Accra.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ultimate Radio, Mr. Dartey said if the illegal activities in the Atiwa Forest are left unchecked, Accra and some parts of the country will have to import drinking water in the near future.
“If you have one region’s water consumption depending on a particular forest reserve and that forest reserve has people doing illegal mining, galamsey, illegal farming and illegal logging activities, then it is a big problem” he bemoaned.
He therefore called for the support of land owners and communities living around the forest, the estates, the law enforcement agencies and the media to help root out all unauthorized activities to save the forest reserve and the protective cover it offers to its beneficiary communities.
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