By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Barekese (Ash), June 12, GNA-The Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) is collaborating with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to eject encroachers within the catchment area of the Barekese Dam.
This follows the invasion of the area by farmers, real estate developers and illegal miners, a development considered as a threat to the effective functioning of the Dam.
Dr. Hanson Mensah-Akutteh, the GWCL Regional Chief Manager, Ashanti Production, interacting with the media at Barekese, after a tree-planting exercise, said the activities of the encroachers were destroying the forest cover shading the Dam.
Their activities led to the loss of almost a half of the 42.4 square kilometers of the vegetation protecting the reservoir and increased in the cost of water treatment and production, he added.
“The encroachers have been given two months ultimatum to leave the catchment area before the law catches up with them,” Dr. Mensah-Akutteh said.
The Dam provides about 80 per cent of the total public pipe-borne water supplied to the Kumasi Metropolis and other parts of the Ashanti Region.
Various research work and studies done on it have warned of dire consequences, following the persistent encroachment on the buffer zone.
On the tree-planting exercise, about 10, 000 tree seedlings of varied species were planted within the catchment area of the reservoir as part of efforts to recover the lost forest cover.
The programme coincided with the Green Ghana Day celebration; an initiative of the Government meant to tackle deforestation in the country.
The GWCL undertook the exercise with assistance from the Forestry Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, Water Resources Commission, Atwima Nwabiagya North Assembly and educational institutions.
GNA