VIDEO: Residents Of Adjena Frustrated With Age-Old Deplorable Road Network

File photo

Correspondence from Eastern Region

The age-old inconveniences, risks, and fatal road accident on the deplorable Adjena road has forced residents to urgently call on the government to fix the stretch, which is fast becoming a death trap for users of the road.

According to road users, accidents continue to occur on the stretch because of their deplorable nature.

Mr. Onyaa Kojo, a native of the town wondered why the road has not been fixed for the people of Adjena who gave up their lands for the construction of the Akosombo dam and continue to contribute their quota towards the development of the country.

“This is a very deplorable road, it is unmotorable. This road has been like that over the years, even after the construction of the dam, it is still the same but this is the road that leads to the towns of the indigenous people of the area, those whose lands were taken for the construction of the Akosombo hydroelectric dam,” said Mr. Onyaa.

According to him, Dr. Abrefa Busia remains the only Ghanaian leader to ever ply the road to witness at first hand the situation on the ground.

He, therefore, called on the government of Ghana and the Volta River Authority (VRA) to as a matter of urgency address the problem by fixing the road.

Describing the effects of the situation on the day-to-day activities of residents in the enclave, Chairman of the Adjena Youth Association, Mr. Offei Collins said pregnant women in labour were the worst affected.

He said, “When you look at the nature of the road, the pregnant women in labour, they have to be transported from Adjena to Akosombo before they can access healthcare through the bunny roads.”

According to him, the situation remained pathetic as some lives were lost while transporting pregnant women to access healthcare.

He furthered that vehicles particularly suffered regular breakdowns using the road while transporting foodstuffs from the enclave to the market centers also remained a difficult situation for the users of the stretch.

The poor state of the road, noted Mr. Offei additionally posed security threat to its users as passengers and drivers were exposed to criminal activities by armed robbers who took advantage of the situation to attack them. Offei disclosed thus, “looking at the state of the road, these herdsmen and others with cattle so it brings about armed robbers on the road and in the course of traveling from Adjena to Akosombo, you meet such people and its serious."

Esther Agyeibea, a trader couldn’t hide her frustration either. She recounted to GhanaWeb the several difficulties she encountered plying the road on a daily basis to conduct her business. According to her, the sitruation is particularly worse during the rainy seasons. She said, “Its true, the state of the road is bothering us. It is worse during the rainy season when we get stuck. No vehicle can go or come and this happens overnight so government should come on board and repair the road for us.”

A driver, Ahiadji Agbeko who has plied the road for the past thirteen years couldn’t hide his frustrations.

He described the impact of the deteriorated nature of the road on their tyres and vehicle parts, increasing their cost of maintenance. “The road is very bad and because of how the road is, our tires get problem and sometimes we get problems due to the potholes or bad nature of the road so every day we have to go to the shop so it means the work that we’re doing, we’re not getting anything from it.”

The driver while pleading with the government to come to their aid said persistent efforts to get government intervention have not yielded any fruits.

District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asuogyaman, Samuel Kwame Agyekum during his confirmation for his second term in office in October identified poor roads in the district as a major concern and affirmed his resolve to prioritize their repair.

These include the Marine-Enyaase, Apegusu Junction-Mpakadan, and Osubin-Anum Boso roads.

Watch the video below:

Source: www.ghanaweb.com