Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Sissala, other areas need good roads

Residents of communities along the Tumu-Sakai-Walembelle-Wa road in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West Region have expressed serious worries about the poor nature of the road and others in the area.

They have, therefore, appealed to the government to give the road a facelift to ease the movement of people and goods.

Among other functions, roads help producers send their products to markets, get workers to their workplaces, students to school, and the sick to hospitals.

That is to say, roads are a vital resource that helps society accomplish various endeavours.

In a word, roads are vital to an individual’s wellbeing and progress, with the aggregate effect positively impacting national development.

Because of the importance of roads to societal wellbeing, members of society who find themselves deprived of or denied roads, and good ones at that, would not cease complaining about the situation.

Thus, the complaints of the people in the Sissala East Municipality about the poor state of a principal road in their area must be of serious concern to the country’s managers.

Listening to the details of the complaints, one cannot help but conclude that the poor nature of the Tumu-Sakai-Walembelle-Wa road, in particular, is hindering the movement of goods and services to where they are needed most, including marketing centres in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

This means efforts to ensure productivity in the area do not end as expected because if agri­cultural yields are not marketed, they go to waste and the implica­tions are dire economically, while the situation kills the morale of producers.

Similarly, it becomes very frustrating if people cannot access places where their services are needed, mostly because of the lack of good roads.

It is pathetic to learn that the bad state of the roads in the Sissala area has made it nearly impossible for trucks, which cart large and heavy cargo, to access the roads there.

Meanwhile, residents are forced to rely on motorcycles for travel and tricycles (aboboyaa) to cart goods.

There are similar cases of poor roads across the country, and there is one phenomenon about public projects and changes of government that must cease forthwith if the country is to see even development.

If the narrative is true that the John Dramani Mahama administration awarded the Tumu-Sakai-Walem-belle road on contract to Fuzak Construction Company Limited in 2015 but work came to a standstill after the Akufo-Addo administration took power, then this is bad and primitive.

However, the Ghanaian Times hopes the President Akufo-Addo government’s District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), launched on July 30, 2024, will help right the wrongs in the road sector, including the continuation of road projects even when there is a change in government at any time.

The DRIP is meant to facilitate the free movement of goods and services, enhance easy transportation of farm produce to market areas, and open new markets for farmers.

Just yesterday, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ketu South, Mr. Maxwell Lugudor, said at Denu-Tokor in the Volta Region that the DRIP is not a political gimmick but a game-changer to transform Ghana.

It is the hope of every Ghanaian that it will be so because the country needs a good road network to boost development.