TTWIMA MPONUA ROADS IN DEPLORABLE STATE (PAGE 20)

ROADS in the Atwima Mponua District are in such a deplorable state that the current continuous rains could cut off some communities from the rest of the country if action is not taken to put them in good shape.
The only tarred road in the district is the one that passes through Nyinahin, the district capital, to Bibiani.
Atwima Mponua is a predominantly farming community with many villages, some very difficult to reach.
Major staples like cassava, cocoyam and plantain are produced in large quantities in the district.
The irony of the situation is that some of the produce get rotten in the hinterlands because of transportation problems.
For a very long time, appeals have gone to the authorities to assist in the improvement of the roads but very little has been done on them. The need to improve access roads is therefore very crucial in facilitating the development of the district.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah, painted a picture of the serious nature of the roads in his area when he told this writer that “something must be done to the poor roads because the situation has become very critical”.
Investigations by the Daily Graphic revealed that the government had awarded a number of the roads in the district on contract but the contractors were not on site.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said some of the contractors complained about delays in payment of contract monies and as a result, they were reluctant to go on site to execute their contracts.
There is the likelihood, however, that some of the contractors are just not equipped enough to undertake contracts awarded them.
Mr Owusu-Ansah stated that the Bibiani Junction–Tanodumasi road had been awarded on contract for tarring.
In fact, it will be just the second tarred road in the district, and the DCE was confident that more of such contracts would come on board as the government moved to open up the rural areas.
Notwithstanding the deplorable state of roads, other areas in the district continue to see improvement.
For instance, educational facilities have been springing up in all communities as a measure of improving standards.
The chunk of the district assembly’s budget is channelled into education to support infrastructure, scholarships and training of teachers, among other areas.
Two programmes in the education sector that have gone a long way to improve enrolment, are the School Feeding Programme and the Capitation Grant.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is progressing steadily in the district. In fact, the people in the district are so grateful to the government for the introduction of the scheme as they could now access health care at a relatively low cost.
Touching on rural electrification, the district has not performed badly at all as more communities continue to benefit from the programme.