Assemblymembers in Ga South decry poor state of roads
Assemble members in the Ga South Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra Region have decried the poor state of roads in the municipality.
So incensed were the assemblymembers over the issue that for close to an hour at the second ordinary meeting, it was the subject matter on the table, with most of them calling for an immediate solution to the problem so that their constituents would not see them as not representing their interest at the assembly.
They also demanded to know from the Municipal Engineer what his department was doing about it.
Concerns
The concerns of the assemblymenbers were made at the opening session of the Second Ordinary Meeting of the Second Session of the First Assembly of the Ga South Municipal Assembly.
They said some of the roads had developed potholes on them and others had become very narrow like footpaths, making it difficult for vehicles to ply the various communities.
The assembly members said with the recent rains, some of the bad roads had further deteriorated to the extent that they had completely become impassable for vehicles.
The said some of the roads need reshaping, while others had to be graded.
Presiding Member
The Presiding Member of the assembly, who is also the assemblyman for the Domeabra Obom Electoral Area, Mr Abdul-Wahab Mohammed, was one of the people who spoke on the matter.
He explained that most of the roads in the municipality were not tarred and cited roads at Akweiman, Kofikwei, Obom, Pramso and Dankyira as typical examples.
He said most of the places in the municipality had farm lands and because of the bad nature of the roads, farmers found it difficult to transport their goods to the nearest markets at Kasoa, Nsawam and Adeiso.
“From Obom to Nsawam, the road is bad. The Obom to Adeiso road is also bad and so is the Obom to Kasoa road,” he lamented.
Contractors
Mr Mohammed blamed contractors who were awarded contracts to work on roads in the municipality for worsening their plight, saying when the contractors were awarded the contract to work on the roads, they stopped the work a few months after visiting the site in the name of going to mobilise for funds to continue with the work.
“The problem is that the contractors don’t come to site to do the work.
If you award contract to contractors and they don’t come to site, change them.
Choose contractors who are ready to come to site to do the work. You don’t keep one contractor on the site for so long when he is doing nothing but claiming that he is mobilising.
How long does it take mobilise funds? he asked.
He appealed to the head office of the Department of Feeder Roads to attach some urgency to the road network in the area, saying they should appoint supervisors to inspect the roads they award on contract in order to be certain that the contractors were doing their work as expected.
MCD
Responding to the assemblymenber’s grievances, the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr Emmanuel Baisie, said the assembly was using its own internally generated funds to work on some of the bad roads in the municipality.
He pleaded with the assemblymembers to bear with them.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Nyarni Stephen, in his sessional address, mentioned the roads that have been earmarked for reshaping and spot improvement to include selected roads at Agbozo, Hobor, Joka Junction, Honise, Fawuntekosua, Obom, Kofikwei, Domeabra, Agbodon-Konkompe and Pamfo areas.
He said the central government had also awarded contracts for work to begin on the following roads: a 4.5 kilometres of selected roads in Amanfro, one kilometre Tsokome road, 4.5 New Bortianor road, two kilometre Broadcasting road, six kilometre Red Top road and the 10km of selected roads within the municipality.