Residents of Fishpond demand community improvement
Residents of Fishpond, a community in the Ga West Municipality, have expressed worry over the deplorable state of the roads and drainage systems in the area.
According to them, they were also faced with the problem of unauthorised buildings and other structures put up in waterways, which, they said, was posing grave danger to them, especially during the rainy season.
In interviews with the Daily Graphic, a number of residents accused the district assembly of looking on unconcerned while the streets and drainage systems became worse and people kept building in waterways without thinking about the welfare of the community.
They were of the opinion that the district assembly was not convincing when it promised to construct gutters and reconstruct the roads in the community.
According to them, such lip-service from the district assembly became heightened when it was time for district assembly elections.
“We are under an assembly which must see to community development, yet that is not happening, and we cannot individually contribute to finance the construction of drainage systems and roads without support from the assembly,” they said.
Attempts by some community members to have structures and buildings in waterways pulled down have been unsuccessful as they were insulted and their action described as unauthorised.
Situation on hand
On a tour of the community, the Daily Graphic observed that roads there were in a terrible shape. They were full of potholes, while a number of them had their bitumen surface completely removed.
In some areas, members of the community had by themselves dug trenches to serve as drains for runoff water, but these are not suitable and have not been capable of saving the area from getting flooded when it rains.
The result is that in certain places, waste water flow behind and in front of houses and onto the streets, a situation that makes the community look unsightly.
Moreover, because the roads are either not tarred or have lost their bitumen surface, the community is almost all the time covered in dust.
Attractive promises
A taxi driver who frequently plies the streets in the community said the poor nature of the road was a major concern since his car suffered frequent breakdowns.
He said some of the roads were so bad that at times he had to drop his passengers midway into their journey for them to continue on foot.
A resident who gave his name only as Bedzo, accused succeeding governments of doing very little for the people and only remembered them when it was time for elections.
He urged the district assembly to put in place measures that would improve the drainage system in the community in order to prevent flooding.
He said a downpour that hit the community in 2011 led to serious flooding, which destroyed property worth millions of cedis but luckily no life was lost.
Street naming
A resident who prefers to remain anonymous wondered why the assembly overlooked the poor drainage systems and roads in the area but went ahead with the street-naming exercise.
She said the circumstance in which the community found itself made the street-naming exercise seem like a joke because it defeated the purpose for which the exercise was intended, which is direction.
She, therefore, urged the assembly to reconstruct the roads and drainage systems in order to make the street-naming project achieve its objectives.
Assembly’s response
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Municipal Chief Executive of the Ga West Municipal Assembly, Mr Sam Atukwei-Quaye, stated that it had come to the notice of the assembly that the community faced those challenges, hence, it was working tirelessly around the clock to solve the problem.
He said the construction of roads and drainage systems were capital intensive and as such the assembly lacked the adequate financial resources to construct them in the community.
Explaining, he added that when it came to the issue of roads, it was the duty of the Ministry of Roads and Highway and Department of Feeder Roads to come to the aid of the assembly in support of the construction of the roads.
Mr Atukwei-Quaye added that a few areas in the municipality, including Fishpond, had been earmarked to have drainage systems constructed, saying, “We cannot do it all at the same time, and we plead with them to be more patient and give us some time; change will come to them.”
He assured residents that the assembly was embarking on a project to grade all roads in the municipality, including those at Fishpond, to make them user-friendly.
