Sand winning, delayed hospital project big headache for Shama District

Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, SHAMA Politics Dec - 26 - 2013 , 11:19

Members of the Shama District Assembly have identified delays in the completion of the Shama Polyclinic, bad road networks in parts of the district and rampant sand winning at the beaches as the biggest challenges facing the district.

Speaking at the second session of the assembly, the District Chief Executive, Mr Enoch Kojo Appiah said even though the road and the completion of the hospital remain developmental issues needing attention, attitudinal change remains a huge challenge.

He said sand winning at the beaches exposes the coastline to high tidal waves but some people continue to engage in it to satisfy their selfish interest.
According to him, while government was doing everything possible to ensure that other developmental issues were tackled, attention had to be focused on the sea defence due to the sand winning activities.

“Government has to source funding for the construction of sea defence to protect Aboadze and the Shama stretch of the coastline,” he said.
Projects in 2013

The Assembly, he said, initiated a total of 10 projects in 2013 including the construction and rehabilitation of classroom blocks, drainage, and culverts with funding from the District Development Fund (DDF), IGF, the District Assemblies Common Fund as well as the MP’s share of the Common Fund.

Other pointers of socio-economic development saw in the area of education for instance, the 2013 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results making a remarkable 72.28 per cent pass rate as against the previous 70 per cent.

He said there is also an improvement in agriculture as government had taken notice of the post-harvest losses mostly in the fishing communities in the area.
The DCE said the district is a beneficiary of government’s cold store project, which was about 95 per cent complete.

“Upon the completion and commissioning, it will greatly help improve the storage of fish and other sea foods as well as contribute to food security in the district,” he said.
Inland Valleys Rice Development Project

Mr Appiah said the Ministry of Agriculture had also informed beneficiary districts that the Northern Rural Growth Project was taking over the next phase of the Inland Valleys Rice Development Project after the completion of the first phase under the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

He said even though the first phase was still saddled with challenges, notably in the construction of access roads and dams for the rice fields, a comprehensive report on the current situation was submitted to the Office of the Western Regional Coordinating Council (WRCC) which capture most of these challenges.

Development Planning

To create solid data for development and revenue mobilization, the assembly was pursuing street naming and property numbering vigorously.
He said it was important to note that the assembly could better mobilize and map its district well when data from of all the streets and properties were well captured.
“The USAID - LOGODEP collaborated with the assembly under Phase I of the above project. Currently, street signposts have been mounted in all seven piloted communities,” he said.

“Towards implementation of the 18 months directive issued by the President on the Street Naming and Property Numbering Exercise, we have reactivated the Street Addressing Team setup under the Phase I; to speed up the processes,” he said.

Medium Term Development Plan : 2014 – 2017
He said the assembly had designed a medium term development plan for 2014 to 2017, revised the previous 2010 – 2013 plan and updated its profile.