Hon. Ernest Victor Apau, the District Chief Executive of Ho West and his team on Tuesday 21st March, 2023 held a community engagement at Hlefi. The engagement sought to discuss activities of the Fulani Herdsmen settlement and sand winning around Helfi and Bakpe areas.
The DCE and his entourage first met with the Chief and people of Helfi to discuss some developmental issues. The community tabled the following requests for the Assembly’s consideration: construction of speed humps, operationalization of Helfi ICT center, destruction of road due to the regular transportation activities of the tipper trucks and construction of overhead tank to augment their Water System.
The team later met with the Chief and elders, Hon. Assembly Members, Landowners and Unit Committee Members for the second session of the engagement.
The Hon. DCE in his address said the settlement of Fulani Herdsmen at Bakpe and other communities of the District have become a major security threat. He said the activities of the Fulani Herdsmen continue to cause havoc to farms which results in clashes between them and the farmers. He urged landowners not to released lands to them in order to prevent them from settling in the area.
On sand winning at Hlefi and Bakpe, the Hon. DCE noted that the Local Governance Act 2016 (Act 936) mandate MMDAs to formulate and implement by-laws to regulate activities including the exploitation of natural resources in their jurisdiction. He indicated that in order to ensure adherence to procedures, the Assembly has held series of meetings with relevant stakeholders to strengthen standards and enforcement of procedures for the effective regulation of sand winning activities in the area. He further said, the indiscriminate wining of sand if not curb would cause environmental degradation which will have severe impact on crop production, Health and livelihood.
The District Coordinating Director, Mr. Wisdom Kporngor urged the land owners to register their lands as well as involve the Assembly in the consigning of their lands to contractors for exploitation of natural resources to ensure proper monitoring of the activities to avoid imminent environmental crisis in the future.
The residents after deliberating on the matter agreed on the following that; activities of Fulani Herdsmen should be banned from the area, Contractors/Operators should reclaim and restore the lands into state that can efficiently support crop cultivation whilst relevant stakeholders should also collaborate to supervise the winning of sand in the area.
Source: Information Services Department, Ho West District
