Desperate cries across the Volta
The Adomi Bridge is not just a link between Atimpoku in the Eastern Region and Juapong in the Volta Region. Apart from the bridge over the Volta at Sogakofe at the southern end of the region, the only access to the region is through Adomi.
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It means that those travelling from the Volta Region to the Greater Accra, Eastern, Central, Western, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions must necessarily and without a choice use the bridge at Adomi and vice versa.
The only possible exception are those travelling to the three northern regions; namely, the Northern, Upper East and Upper West. Even this alternative has a big question mark for which an answer may be difficult to provide.
The fact is that for years, and for reasons that defy any easy explanation, successive governments have ignored the road passing through the Volta Region to the northern parts of the country, the Eastern Corridor Road, as it has come to be known.
The promise, therefore, by President John Evans Atta Mills to make it one of his priority project was welcome news not only for the people of the Volta Region but all those up north for obvious reasons.
The Eastern Corridor Road will shorten the journey between Greater Accra, Volta and some coastal communities and the north. It also means that landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali that used the port facilities in Tema and the eastern border post at Aflao will be better placed to do business with our country and our business community.
The socioeconomic benefits of the Eastern Corridor Road to the country and the people could well be imagined. That also means that the Adomi Bridge is of equal importance to all the regions of Ghana and the neighbouring countries that by necessity must use it in their social and business interactions with Ghanaians.
That was why most serious-thinking Ghanaians were not expecting Adomi to be left to the point of deterioration before a decisive measure to remedy the situation was taken.
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Notwithstanding our failure to be proactive in this regard, under no circumstances did the decision to close down the bridge come by accident. That was why one would have expected that considering its social, economic and, very important, its political value to the country, a lot of thinking would have been made and appropriate measures taken before the closure.
As it is now, it is obvious some persons have either underrated the workload of that bridge or simply devalued its strategic importance. Travelling between the Volta Region and the rest of the country is now a nightmare.
Those affected most are those in the northern parts of the region, including areas as far as Kete Krachi, Nkwanta, Dambai, Kadjebi, Worawora, Tapa Abotoase, and Hohoe.
Commuters from these areas cannot under the present circumstances be able to make a return journey in a day.
It also means that our brothers and sisters from the northern regions who brave the poor nature of the Eastern Corridor road instead of using the long route through the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions would have to make a hard choice.
The solution, though not still the best, would have been simple -- upgrade of the road between Ho and Sogakofe through Adidome and for the sake of those in the northern regions and the northern parts of the Volta Region, the Juapong- Akuse road.
It is not too late. If the so-called technocrats and their politician counterparts have failed to advise the government properly, this is the time for the latter to prove so and do something to show concern for the cries of those who, for geographical reasons, have found themselves on the other side of the River Volta.