Ghana is working under Akufo-Addo - Fisheries Minister

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, has said the country under the administration of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo“is at work”, considering the interventionsthey have provided under four years.

Mrs Quaye, who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Krowor Constituency, added that development projects being embarked upon by the government requiredGhanaians to renew their mandate in line the mantra “four more years, to do more..

Speaking to the DAILY HERITAGE after inspecting some ongoing construction projects in areas of roads, bridges and drains within the Krowor Constituency, Mrs Quaye said the projects included 9.8 kilometres of roads which would take four months to execute.

Detailing the specific projects, the MP said they involved the Spintex-Coastal-Boundary road, the Nungua Blekese drains, the Spintex-Joggies-Estate roads and the Nungua Coco-Beach-Kasapreko drains.

Mrs Quaye, joined by the Krowor Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Joshua NiiBortey, onthe tour, also inspected some of the finisheddevelopment projects which have been theconcernsof the constituents and commercial drivers forover20 yearswithout attention.

‘Ghana is at work’

According to her, “Ghana is at work again. His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo is at work. You can see that roads that have been lying for over 20 years are now being constructed. Previously, people only come around to do drains, they start these drains, they don’t finish and then they go away.

“Now, we can see clearly what is happening here, the Boundary road is being constructed and they are saying it is the ‘Afoley Highway.’ We’ve started dredging most of our storm drains in Krowor just to forestall the occurrence of any flood in our homes.

“You can see clearly what we have done here. We are doing the dredging. The Blekese is being dredged, the Mukwei is being dredged, and all the water bodies and the storm drains are being dredged to ensure the safety of residents.

“We have to ensure the safety of our people so we have started it in lieu of the coming rains. We are waiting for the rains to come clearly as the Meteorological Services Departmenthas provided enough information that this year’s rains will come quiet early so we are preparing for the rains.

“We are preventing disaster, we won’t just wait for the disaster to happen but we are preventing it. It is more expensive managing disaster than preventing disaster so at the moment that is what we are doing.

Nungua Barrier fly-over

She added that, “We are constructing the roads in KroworIt is not just the Boundary roads we are doing, the Tema-Nungua Highway will also be expanded into a four-lane road. At the Nungua Police Barrier, we will have a flyover. It’s going to be a three-tier road, …spanning from the Black Star Square, [through] Teshie to Nungua, then to Tema.”

She explained further that, the project which the sod cutting would be performed by the President in the coming weeks, “It’s a two phase projects, the first phase is from the Black Star Square to Nungua Barrier, and then the second phase is from Nungua Barrier to Tema.

Almost 10km project

The MP said the project which started about a month ago was moving very fast and “you can see the contractor is very busy, very serious with the work he is doing, the speed with which he is working, clearly within three to four months, we would have been done with these projects.”

The contractor, she said, works 24/7hours, including weekends.

Have attitudinal change

While advising the residents who live close to the drains, she said, “We are cleaning our drains and taking out the filth to protect your lives and protect your property; we cannot have you dump rubbish into the drains.

“We should be each other’s keeper; if you find your neighbour dumping refuse into the drains, it’s your duty to report such a person for the law to take its course and ensure we keep what the state has provided for us. We must keep the resources wisely; let’s all together protect the public purse. We need to have attitudinal change and ensure that we keep for a very long time what the state has provided for us,” she urged.

Contractor sure of timelines

The Managing Director of Insaan Ghana Limited, Osman Musah, who is the contractor of the project, said the contract sum is GHc26 million for the 9.8km road projects. He said he was optimistic that all things being equal, they could finish the project within time.

Resident’s admiration

Some of the residents and drivers in the areas of these construction and drains being dredged expressed happiness, especially because the rains were approaching. Taxi drivers plying the Spintex Coastal roads thanked the MP, and the KroMA MCE for listening to them and addressing their plight by working on the roads.

Who was there?

Mrs Quaye and the KroMA MCE were accompanied in the monitoring and inspection of the ongoing road works and drainage projects by the Director of Urban Roads, Mr Alhaji Abass Awolu, and NPP Constituency delegates and party members.