<<Print>>

The deplorable condition of roads in the Upper West Region remains a big source of worry to the Chiefs and people of the region. The situation does not augur well for the rapid movement of food stuff from the producing areas to the market centres. What is worst, some of the major roads in the region such as the Wa-Tumu and Lawra-Hamile become unmotorable whenever there is a downpour. The Regional Minister, Bede Ziedeng expressed these sentiments when the region took its turn to at the ongoing nationwide public forum on the Road Fund at Wa. The Road Fund under the auspices of the Ministry of Roads and Highways was established in 2007 by ACT 536 as a mechanism to address the shortfall in the financing gap in road maintenance programme. The Fund thrives on revenue from levy on fuel, registration of vehicles, road user fees and road tolls among others. The forum aimed at sensitizing stakeholders in the road sector to ensure adequate resourcing and sustainable management of the Road Fund. The Regional Minister, Bede Ziedeng, said statistics available indicate that the region has the least kilometer of bituminous road in the country with eighty percent of the road network untarred. He noted that any poverty alleviation strategy in the region will not be able to make the mark without the availability of a good road network of feeder roads to enhance food production. Mr Ziedeng was not happy about the fact that the Upper West remains the only region in the country with no single Kilometer of asphalt road. For his Part, the Minister of Roads and Highways Alhaji Aminu Sulemana said studies conducted in the recent past indicated that the completion and maintenance of road network in the country have engendered among other things twenty percent increase in trips to hospitals as a result of improved access and sixty five percent lowering of costs of travel to market centres. He said the cost of road construction and its subsequent regular maintenance require a huge financial outlay of which the level of investment cannot be met entirely by the country�s annual budgetary allocation. This according to the sector Minister serves well the basis of the argument that the burden of road maintenance becomes a shared responsibility between the government and the road user hence the inception of the Road Fund. The forum on the theme �financing of road maintenance� attracted members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and transport and other key stakeholders such as members of the regional fuel dealers association, security agencies and all the District Chief Executives in the region.