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Wa-Naa bemoans deplorable nature of Wa-Bamboi road

Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo, the overlord of the Waala Traditional Council, says the deplorable nature of the Wa-Bole-Bamboi Road is “giving sleepless nights to drivers and passengers.

Date Created : 6/14/2024 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Bajin D. Pobia/Ghanadistricts.com

“It is also killing patients on referrals to hospitals in Tamale and Kumasi involuntarily.” He said the deplorable condition of the road made it harder to be called a road again and that only the drivers who have been plying on it could locate it.

“Drivers plying on it for the first time easily get missing and rather veered off into the bushes because the bush path and the road are identical in sight. Its dreadful condition makes it a nightmare in the true word,” the Wa-Naa lamented.

The Wa-Naa laid bare these concerns before the Road and Highways Minister, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye, during a courtesy call on him at his palace to start an inspection tour of the European Union and World Bank-funded feeder roads and other roads in the Upper West Region.

The Wa-Naa said hitherto a journey of six hours from Wa-Kumasi had now become 15 hours journey by commercial vehicles and as a result, perishable goods transported from the southern sector got wasted because of the long hours spent on the road.

“A major worry to our people has to do with patients on referrals to Tamale and Kumasi Teaching Hospitals for specialists’ medical attention, as they get to their destinations declared dead on arrival,” the Wa-Naa said. “It is that when patients are on referral to these hospitals, relatives start to prepare for their funerals because the roads will virtually kill them,” he added.

The Wa-Naa, however, commended government for providing the region with two universities, which had developed excellent programmes to educate the teeming youth with skills to serve the manpower needs of the region and Ghana as a whole.

He, however, expressed disappointment that the intake of students in the two universities had dwindled and attributed it to the poor network, which had caused students to refuse admissions while government workers, especially some critical medical personnel were rejecting transfers to the region. “Equally, businessmen and women have also found the region unattractive and are refusing to set up their enterprises due to the high cost of doing businesses regarding transportation and poor road network”.

Naa Pelpuo reminded Mr. Asenso-Boakye of a promise made to the people of the region by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that he would fix the Wa-Bole-Bamboi Road and present it as a gift before the end of his tenure of office.

He said the people were hopeful to see the fulfillment of that promise because already the government had tarred the Wa-Charia, and Dobile-Kambali roads and work was ongoing on the Wa-Jongu Road and “these give us reasons that we trusted he would deliver on his promise.”

He appealed to the government to consider the construction of the Wa-Boli- Loggu and the Wa- Magazine roads, which he said were in deplorable conditions to help facilitate the movement of people, goods, and services, while efforts were made to provide traffic lights for the Kambali section of the road to help reduce accidents.

Mr. Asenso-Boakye said, the government had developed two options for the development of the a-Bole-Bamboi portion of the Wa-Kumasi Road; one being the parching of all the potholes and bad portion of the road to make it accessible for the movement of vehicles, after which government would consider asphalting it to enhance trade.

He assured the people of the region that the government would work assiduously to bring the needed development to the region to improve livelihoods at the local level.

The Roads and Highways Minister inspected ongoing construction works on the Kamba River near Nandom after he had commissioned the EU Roads at Daffiama.