MISHIO BENJAMIN ( Essay on Environment )

Contents

NAME: MISHIO  BENJAMIN

DATE OF BIRTH: 28^TH MARCH, 1984

E-MAIL: kapintcha@yahoo.com

ADDRESS: HO POLYTECHNIC

P.O BOX 217 HO

VOLTAREGION – GHANA

WEST AFRICA

ENVIRONMENT

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE HO MUNICIPALITY

Ho Municipality is located at the centre of the Volta Region. Its environment is mostly mountainous with rich tall trees interspersed with a lot of grasses. The environment is generally vegetative which makes the occupation of the people farming and crafts.

Some of the food crops cultivated include yam, maize, plantain, cocoyam, potatoes etc. Vegetables such as spinach, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, cabbage, onions, garden eggs etc are also grown. They also engage in fruit production- fruits such as mangoes, bananas, pineapples, oranges etc. crafts that people undertake includes basket weaving, cane weaving, kente weaving etc.  Few people are government workers, hair dressers, seamstresses and tailors etc.

Ghana for that matter, Ho is a very sensitive and vulnerable zone where the impacts of climate change are high. Ho is a farming area and this means the farmers depend largely on the weather conditions to make ends meet. The Harmattan is very severe, temperature too high and very irregular rainfall patterns which adversely results in drought, desertification and famine.

Some small communities which depend on rivers and lakes also complained of the water bodies getting dried up especially during the dry season. They said the previous year’s Harmattan was milder and they were not prepared for this year’s.

Climate change can result in shortage of food and because of this, prices of food can shoot up so much that only few people who have the means can afford them thereby increasing the poverty rate of the people. This will go a long way to put stress on the National Health Insurance Scheme as a lot of people will get sick from malnutrition and eating of unhealthy foods.

As the population is increasing, more lands are cultivated since there are more mouths to feed. This makes Ho more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The homes of plants and animals are destroyed in the process. In the urban areas, there is the need to build more amenities and infrastructures like Hospitals, schools etc to accommodate the growing population.

Due to urbanization, people are using modernized equipment and machinery to carry out their day to day activities. These activities may include construction activities, transportation, domestic cooking, bush burning etc which sometimes result in air pollution where the air is contaminated with undesirable gases, dust, smoke, fumes or odour in harmful amounts. Air pollution can cause people to suffer from irritation of the eye, nose and throat as well as wheezing, coughing and breathing difficulties and increased risk of heart attack and in especially sensitive people, results in premature death.

The following are suggested solutions to reduce if not eliminate some of the impacts of climate change. The community has to be educated on climate change and its impacts. The solution to the effects of climate change first and foremost is educating the general public about the impacts of climate change by organizing talks and symposia regularly to keep the people abreast with the changes in the environment.

Encourage planting of more trees, moving from the use of coal to more modern and renewable methods of producing and using energy i.e. the use of solar, wind etc to generate energy. There should be enforcement of the law and regulations as well. Non governmental organizations should be empowered to take up the challenges of educating the public.

The meteorological Department should make their findings known to the general public in advance so that they can be well prepared for what the weather has for them.

Rain water should be stored and used for irrigation purposes during the dry season. Proper waste management is also needed to curb some of the air pollution problems. Community health nurses should put in more effort to educate the public on eating healthy foods.

The right authorities should set aside some amount of land to be used as forest reserves so that some plants and animals do not go into extinction. The government should enforce a law that reduces the rate at which the population is increasing by providing packages for parents who have at most two children. The oil refineries should produce lead-free and carbon-free petrol and diesel to help reduce the green house gases.

If these measures are taken, I believe people in Ho will be able to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and would not be taken by surprise. This will eventually result in a balanced environment for healthy lives in the society.

 The part of the solution that I would like to tackle first is the education of the public on climate change and its impacts. I will therefore need approximately nine thousand dollars ($9,000). This amount will be used for logistics. The logistics needed include Lap top, Projector, Public Address System, Transportation to the hinter lands and villages, educational materials in the form of booklets for distribution to the audience.