District Chief Executive for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district Assembly, Mumuni Isaac Dramani has expressed worry about a Galamsey activity going on in the district, specifically at Kpali inside the Black Volta. Speaking at the first ordinary meeting of the third year of the Assembly at Sawla in the Northern Region, Mr. Mumuni stated that the activity is not only illegal but has the potential to prevent substantial volumes of water flowing into the Bui Dam for the generation of electricity to the nation. He said the issue has been brought to the attention of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), compelling the District Security Committee (DISEC) to visit the place on two occasions. ‘‘I therefore use this platform to sound a word of caution to the people who are in the business to desist from that else, the risk facing the full rigors of the law when apprehended,’’ he warned. On education, Mr. Mumuni noted that despite the heavy investment in education which takes more than half of the district’s budget, standards in education is on the decline using the performance of the BECE Examination for the past two years to state his case. For a short term solution, he said the assembly will consider increasing the number of teachers to be sponsored and review the sponsorship package in order to attract more teachers into the district. He appealed to the district directorate of education to intensify its monitoring and supervision to schools to scale down teacher absenteeism. He also appealed to all stakeholders to what it takes to address the challenge. Touching on priority projects, which seeks to provide adequate infrastructure to health and educational institutions as well as upgrade and create new ones, the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District Chief Executive posited that they have forwarded proposals to the government for consideration of a new Senior High School at Kalba; upgrade the District Health Centre to a District hospital; provide facilities for Tuna Secondary technical, Sawla community Secondary and Sawla Girls Vocational Schools. Earlier, members of the Assembly voted to retain, Simon Belembe as the Presiding Member of the Assembly. He had to go through second round of voting before he polled the required two-thirds of the votes cast. Mr. Simon was sworn into office by the Bole District Magistrate, his lordship, Dapilaa Peter Banoe.