WR TAKES MEASURES TO PREVENT BUSH FIRES (PAGE 35, JAN 24, 2011)

IN 1982/1983, bush fire outbreaks dealt a devastating blow to the country’s vegetation cover and farmlands and cocoa farms were severaly affected. The problem resulted in the downward trend of cocoa production.
The fire outbreaks also resulted in serious famine in the country and as a result, people had to queue to buy kenkey, loaves of bread and foodstuffs for survival. This was further compounded by the deportation of millions of Ghanaians from Nigeria.
To suppress the rampant bush fires, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) came up with the concept of fire volunteer squads and formed squad in almost all the communities in the country.
The aim of the formation of the fire volunteer squads was to help suppress and combat bush fires and also educate the communities on how to fight and prevent bush fires.
The community fire volunteer squads who were trained in firefighting and prevention by officers from the GNFS, worked to perfection in combating fire outbreaks in the country, but in the course of time, the fire volunteer spirit gradually died down.
To revive the fire volunteer spirit, the Western Regional Command of the GNFS has organised a day’s seminar on bush fire prevention for fire officers, rural fire co-ordinators, fire volunteers and representatives of other sectors in the region.
The participants were taken through challenges in bush fire management, strategies for bush fire prevention this year and review of previous anti-bush fire campaigns.
The seminar was on the theme: “Bush fire prevention: A tool for protecting our environment for a better Ghana.”
The Western Regional Rural Fire Unit trained a total of 1,140 fire volunteers between November 2008 and November, 2010.
Within the same period, a total of 42 fire outbreaks were recorded causing damage to property estimated at GH¢20,000.
However, last year, the region recorded fewer fire outbreaks due to the favourable weather condition, activities of the fire volunteers and the intensification of public education campaigns.
At the opening ceremony of the seminar, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Ms Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, said bush fires had contributed significantly to the loss of a third of the country’s forest cover.
She said the destruction of the forest cover was associated with the loss of economic trees such as cocoa, oil palm, timber, mining areas and other installations all of which were a major economic livelihood for people in the rural areas.
Ms Bosomtwi-Sam said it was estimated that every year bush fire alone cost the country US$210 million, an equivalent of about three per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
She therefore stressed the need for a concerted effort by all stakeholders to be able to deal with the menace of bush fires effectively.
“It has come to a time when we must recognise that bush fire prevention needs a multi-sectoral approach in order to deal with it effectively,” the Deputy Minister stressed.
“We need the support of all stakeholders and related agencies to put their resources together to deal with this problem once and for all,” she added.
Mrs Bosomtwi-Sam said, “With this collaboration, we shall be able to adopt effective strategies to reduce the incidence of bush fires.”
She appealed to cocoa, oil palm and rubber farmers to come to the aid of the fire volunteers, since the concept had so far proved as the most effective way of dealing with fire disasters.
Mrs Bosomtwi-Sam said as fire continued to be the basic tool for economic activity of majority of the people, the fire volunteer concept would remain the frontier of fighting and controlling of bush fires in the country.
She appealed to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to allocate funds under the District Assemblies’ Common Fund for bush fire activities.
The Deputy Regional Minister also reminded the assemblies of the requirement under PNDCL 229, that they should establish bush fire control subcommittees.
She called on non-governmental organisations which were interested in environmental issues to help in sustaining the fire volunteers and see them as complementing their efforts by offering them the necessary financial and material support.
The Western Regional Commander of the GNFS, Mr Stephen Oscar Cobbina, explained that the seminar sought to tilt towards the inclination of professing other strategies to help mitigate the fire outbreak menace.
“We want to discuss and adopt strategies for education in all the districts and communities in the region,” he stressed.
Mr Cobbina appealed to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the region to support the activities of the fire volunteers, who had over the years assisted the GNFS in that endeavour.
He also urged the government to review PNDCL 1989 on bush fire, since the law “as it is now is weak and does not prescribe enough stringent sanctions to deter people from causing bush fires in the country.”
Mr Cobbina said the chiefs and traditional councils, being the custodians of the land and its resources, must join in the fight against bush fires.
He stressed that their concern for environmental protection must be exhibited with the enforcement of traditional norms against the setting of fires.
The Western Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission, Mrs Lydia Opoku, said the commission had deployed fire engines to all the 10 regions in the country, adding that the one for the Western Region was stationed at Bibiani.
She said fire belts had been created around forest reserves in the region to help prevent fire outbreaks in the reserves.
Mrs Opoku mentioned Sefwi, Juaboso and Bia among the fire-prone areas in the region.