Chiefs Warn Gov�t Over Bad Road

The youth and chiefs of Dokrochiwa, Ayensuano and Kroboa-Coaltar in the Suhum-Kroboa-Coaltar District of the Eastern region have threatened to demonstrate against the government over the apparent neglect of the main road which leads to their area from Nsawam-Adoagyiri if it does not rehabilitate the road immediately. The people have also threatened not to allow any politician to campaign in the area or vote in the general elections in 2012. The youth and the people gave the warning last Thursday when they invited DAILY GUIDE to visit the area to ascertain the nature of the road. The 25km road from Adoagyiri through Dokrochiwa is in such a �terrible� state that drivers plying the road have arbitrarily increased the fare from the official GH�1.5 to GH�2, and the journey of 40 minutes now takes one and half hours. The road is very narrow and untarred with deep gullies running through most sections while rocks, which protrude dangerously at certain sections, pose great danger to drivers and passengers. Passengers have to alight to enable the vehicles traverse some dangerous sections of the road. According to the chiefs and youth of the town, during the time of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, the road was graded regularly in three months but since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over power the road has completely been neglected. The Dawu chief of the town, Nana Baffour Anom II said cocoa and food crop farmers in the area suffer unduly since most of their products get locked up because big cars and trucks are unable to use the road thereby allowing the products to perish with its consequent income losses to the farmers. �Because there is no major hospital in the area, emergency cases are referred to either the Nsawam or Suhum Government Hospital and before the patient is sent to the hospital he or she dies or the situation worsens because of the bad nature of the road,� he said. According to them, most women in critical conditions during labour die on their way to the hospital because of the bad nature of the road. He said teachers are also refusing postings to the area because of the nature of their road. The people of Dokrochiwa bemoaned the bad state of their market which they said was the major revenue-generating market in the area. �There is virtually non-existing market in this town because the market women sell in the open, yet staff of the assembly on every Wednesday and Saturday come to collect market tolls from here,� the chief said. The people also expressed concern about the neglect of the Presby Primary school in the town whose roof was ripped in a rainstorm about six years ago. The District Chief Executive (DCE) for area, Samuel Kwabi, in a reaction, admitted the bad nature of the road but said that the road was in that state when the NPP was in power. He said the NDC government has awarded the road on contract through the Feeder Roads but because of the raining season, the contractor has not started work. On the market at Dokrochiwa, the DCE said he has met the chiefs and opinion leaders of the town and asked them to provide a new site for the construction of a new market but the people insist that the old market, which is sited in a waterlogged area, should rather be rehabilitated. �Investing in the old market will be like throwing money down the road because it will not be a viable project and we just want the chiefs and the people to get a new site to enable us build the market for them,� Mr. Kwabi said.