The East La Burma Valley Residents Association in Accra on Thursday gave the ECG one week ultimatum to replant the 50 trees, it fell in the area without recourse to its environmental impact.
According to the association, the decision to cut down the trees defeated the government’s ‘Green Ghana’ project and called on the ECG to take steps to restore those trees.
Addressing a press conference at La on Wednesday, the President of the association, Mrs Linda Stepper said the association would take the matter up in court if the ECG office failed to come up with steps to restore the damage they had caused along the roads after one week of the press briefing.
Mrs Stepper said “It’s very sad and heart breaking but we will be instructing our lawyers after one week of this press conference to serve ECG if they fail to respond with concrete measures on how to restore the lost trees they have destroyed because this act alone is a major setback to all the efforts people are making towards mitigating climate change and global warming.”
She said that the position taken by ECG was a set back towards efforts by individuals and institutions who were embarking on measure to mitigate climate change and global warming.
The President explained that, eight years ago the association purchased over 3,500 Royal palm and Mililia trees with support from the assembly and the Former Municipal Chief Executive for La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA) and current Member of Parliament (MP) for La Dade-Kotopon Constituency, Rita Odoley Sowah and together they planted the trees along most places in the municipality.
Eight years down the line, the President said ECG was cutting down these planted trees within a day without consultation to the association, the assembly or the parks and garden in the municipality.
She noted that residents in La informed the association of a destruction of trees by the ECG, so some of them went to confront them but upon reaching the place over 50 of the trees had been destroyed from the assembly through to Zenith College and Goil Filling Station, down to the Labadi beach.
Mrs Stepper said the association did not believe that the trees had reached the height that could disturb the electricity cable connected on the poles because they had been pruning regularly.
She said it was very painful to use individuals’ funds for the collective good of the society and one institution would take a day to destroy it as if the initiative was worthless.
The President said no one would be willing to go out and plant a tree if individuals and institutions would come out to destroy them after several years of watering and monitoring.
Mrs Stepper, therefore, asked the government to come out with policies or laws to prevent people from cutting down trees that cause no harm, but rather serve as protection to the society.
BY VICTOR A. BUXTON
