More than 100 trees planted directly under electric cables were destroyed in Ho by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in 2022.
At a press conference in Ho on Friday (17 February), the Volta regional engineer of the ECG, Michael Buabin, said it is dangerous to plant trees directly under electric cables.
This poses danger to residents when there is a disaster, and it affects supply of electricity. He encouraged the public to observe the approved distance of 10 to 15 metres between trees and electric cables when planting.
The destruction of trees under ECG cables in the Ho municipality coincided with the Green Ghana Day initiative in June 2022 where trees were planted to restore the nation’s vegetation. 20 million trees were planted across the country under the initiative that year.
Buabin said the destruction of the trees was not done with malicious intentions.
“It’s unfortunate. It will not happen again. We’ll make sure that we do not allow tree to be grown that close to the network,” he stated. He added that in future, the company will trim trees that grow close to the network cables instead of destroying them completely.
There is a global call to combat the negative effects of climate change. Tree planting and the protection of vegetation are considered highly as remedial to the effect of climate change.
Recently, Ghana received approximately US$4.86 million from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility for reducing 972,456 tons of carbon emissions for the first monitoring period (June to December 2019) under the programme.
