"Country's environmental regulation or infrastructure"

Ghana is a country with many environmental issues. From water pollution to air pollution, land degradation, open defecation, galamsey, overfishing, and indiscriminate burning of refuse. These are just a few. Laws have been enacted to help curb this situations but it cannot be enforced because the government has done nothing to ensure that these problems are not encountered by the people on first hand. This means; if you teach a man to fish, he would stop coming to you to ask for fish. If the laws have been set, make sure the necessary tools or conditions that would prevent an individual from breaking the rules are made available. An example could the open defecation. If a rule is set that open defecation is highly not practicable in the country, then the government must ensure that toilets are built in every apartment, or there could be enough toilets facilities in each community to help facilitate the law. The situation is not like that anyway.

This notwithstanding, some regulations have been superb in the country and I would highlight a few;

1.     Illegal Harvesting of Rosewood: One good thing our current government did is to place a ban on the illegal logging or felling of Rosewood (Red Timber) which is an endangered species. I can attest to the fact people have been arrested and prosecuted for committing foul to this law and this has really helped improved the environment of the communities within which the Rosewood are located.

2.     Illegal mining (Galamsey): I wish I could give the government a thumbs up on this but I can’t. They started off by placing a ban on galamsey which really helped in the cleansing of our polluted water bodies. Within months, brown looking rivers saw gleaming colourless water flowing through them once again and all was well till the ban was lifted. We took a step forward and took three backwards again, and with the elections in Ghana being just two days away, for this I dare to vote against the government.

3.     Save Atewa Forest: Environmental enthusiast like myself took to demonstrations and consistent pressure to force the government to rescind on its decision to give Atewa forest for mining of bauxite to a Chinese company. I understand the ministry of forestry have labeled the forest as a reserve for the country now and hence mining cannot be done in it.

We still have a very long way to go as Ghanaians, I am still amazed that none of our TWELVE Presidential aspirants took just a single full page of their voluminous pages of promises (manifesto) to discuss the environment and the ways forward. It is a shame, and for this I am pissed L

Green Cheers from Ghana.