Four years ago, on January 20, 2022, a mining explosives truck detonated at Appiatse, near Bogoso.
Sixteen people died.
An entire community was reduced to rubble.
Today, more than 300 Ghanaians still live in relief camps at Appiatse.
They sleep under leaking roofs.
They drink unclean water.
They navigate stagnant pools that breed mosquitoes.
They go to bed in darkness because electricity is erratic.
This is not acceptable.
The Government of the day delivered on Phase One within 18 months.
That was commendable.
Phase Two’s cash support to homeowners was also pragmatic.
But Phase Three involves 69 additional buildings on the periphery, plus auxiliary facilities and sanitation, to complete resettlementof the accident victims.
Phase One gave 124 new houses to about 870 residents and was handed over in May 2024.
Phase Two supported about 50 property owners to rehabilitate partially damaged buildings.
But Phase Three — the final phase meant to resettle the remaining displaced victims — is still in limbo. And people are paying the price.
Others lost family members and have received no sustainable livelihood support.
Those with life-threatening injuries have received no compensation.
Efforts to get information on the local fund set up for livelihood restoration have yielded no result.
Four years after a national tragedy, that is a failure of follow-through.
With the rains at their peak, conditions at the camp have worsened.
Roofs leak profusely. Poor drainage leaves stagnant water.
There is no potable water, so families rely on unsafe sources for domestic use.
Electricity cuts mean children study in darkness and health risks increase.
This is not relief. This is prolonged displacement.
A disaster does not end when the cameras leave. It ends when the last family is back in a safe home, with water, light, and a means to earn a living.
For more than 300 people at Appiatse, that day has not come.
The Daily Graphic is aware that a committee from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, LUSPA, the Lands Commission, the Assembly and community leaders met beneficiaries on July 21, 2026 to discuss the concept, layout, land use, roads and technical specifications for Phase Three.
We welcome the engagement.
Resolving all the issues is necessary.
But four years is too long to allow issues to hold up housing for disaster victims.
Emergency resettlement should have a fast-track mechanism.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, which oversees the Appiatse reconstruction, must roll out sustainable livelihood support now — for widows, for the injured, for those who lost breadwinners.
Compensation for injuries cannot wait for houses to be completed. Livelihoods are as important as buildings.
People need income, not just shelter. Skills training, microcredit, and support for farming and trading should run alongside construction.
The original plan for Appiatse was bold and humane.
Hundred and twenty-four new homes, rehabilitation of 416 buildings, 13.21km of access roads, 26 green spaces, and utilities corridors for electricity, sewage and ICT. That vision must be completed.
The explosion at Appiatse was an accident.
The prolonged suffering of 300 people in a relief camp is a policy choice.
Phase One stands as proof that we can rebuild quickly and well.
But a chain is only as strong as its last link. Phase Three is that last link.
The victims need to be reassured that the country hasn’t forgotten about them while we believe that the government should not let bureaucracy be the reason children sleep in leaking rooms.
The community has seen the designs. Now move from meetings to mortar.
Appiatse deserves to be a story of national resilience, not national neglect.
Let us finish the houses, close the camp, restore livelihoods, and give those 300 people back their dignity and their home.
Four years is long.
