THE chiefs and people of the newly created Akyemmansa District in the Eastern Region have expressed concern about the deplorable roads in the area.
According to them, they find it difficult to convey sick people and women in labour to nearby health facilities on time, sometimes resulting in their untimely death.
These were among the concerns they expressed at this year’s People’s Assembly held at Akyem Ofoase, the district capital.
They also noted with concern the lack of social amenities such as street lights, public places of convenience and dilapidated school buildings as some of the problems facing the newly-created district.
These concerns came to light after the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, and the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Nana Acquah Frimpong, had taken turns to explain the various government policies, programmes and achievements to the gathering.
The chiefs and the people of the area, who are mostly peasant farmers, said the roads from one community to another and those leading to major towns, such as Akyem Oda and New Abirem, had for many years remained untarred, with countless potholes dotted on them.
Such a situation, they bemoaned, had made driving along the roads extremely difficult, thus discouraging commercial vehicles from plying the various communities in the district.
“However, a few of the drivers, who ply the roads, charge exorbitant fares to the detriment of the settlers in the district,” they stressed.
Recounting a personal experience, the Assembly Member for the Adwafo Electoral Area, Mr Philip Kyei Appiagyei, stressed that on many occasions, especially during the rainy season, attempts to convey women in labour had been difficult, resulting in some deaths.
He added that passengers who travelled on such roads had to get down , on several occasions, to push vehicles that were stuck in the mud.
Mr Appiagyei stated that such an unpleasant situation had compelled many drivers plying the roads to charge exorbitant fares from one community to another.
“Our inability to cart our farm produce to the marketing centres always results in unnecessary post-harvest losses of food crops,” Mr Edwin Nartey, a cocoa farmer in the area, said.
He added that such hardships had discouraged many people, especially the youth, from seeing farming as a lucrative venture.
The situation, Mr Nartey explained, had forced many young men and women in the area to seek non-existent jobs in big towns, leaving behind the old and weak to do the farming.
The people further stated that although most of the roads had been awarded on contract, the contractors had abandoned the projects due to lack of funds.
They, therefore, appealed to the government to release funds to the contractors to enable them to quicken the pace of work to make life bearable for them.
Even though they commended the government for introducing the mass cocoa-spraying exercise, they, however, expressed regret at the attitude of some of the spraying gangs, who, they claimed, sometimes demanded as much as GH¢20 from a farmer before spraying his farm.
The people commended the government for creating the new district, as well as introducing various people-centred programmes, such as the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the National Health Insurance Scheme, which had brought relief to them.
At New Abirem, the capital of Birim North District, where a similar event took place, the chiefs and people of the area also expressed worry over the lack of social amenities, such as public places of convenience and street light, as well as the absence of a fence round the only senior high school (SHS) in the area, the New Abirem/Afosu SHS.
According to them, because the school had no fence round it, boarding students often sneaked out to engage in all sorts of social vices, such as pre-marital sex, smoking and drinking.
They, therefore, appealed to the government to help fence the school.
The people further appealed to the government to provide a licence to the Newmont (Akyem) Project to commence work and pay compensation to farmers whose lands had been affected by the project.
The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister and acting DCE for the area, Mr Ofosu Asamoah, who was the guest speaker, took pains to listen to their concerns and promised to carry them to the apprapriate quarters for redress.
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