Major road works ongoing in Upper West Region

Mr. Isaac Adjei Mensah, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, said at “the Government for the People Forum” in Wa that major rehabilitation works are ongoing on roads in the Upper West Region.

He mentioned the Hain – Tumu, Hain - Zini-Gwollu, Nadowli-Lawra-Nandom and Tumu- Wellembelle roads among others as some of the roads being rehabilitated to improve the movement of people, goods and services.

He said a number of feeder and urban roads were also being constructed in district capitals while rehabilitation works were ongoing on some roads in the communities.

Mr. Mensah however said he was not happy that the contractor who was to undertake constructional works on the Kundungu-Bielepong roads had not reported at site.

He said letters had been written to the contractor warning him to get to site or face the full rigours of the law.

The Deputy Roads Minister called on the people to co-operate with government to work on the roads and make them accessible to all.

Mr. Ato Sarpong, Deputy Communication Minister said government was providing Innovation Improvement Centres, E-Immigration Centres and Community Information Centres among others with internet facilities to create jobs for the youth.

The facilities would also assist students in research work and businessmen in their transactions.

The Minister said government had made interventions in supporting pharmaceutical companies, poultry and rice sectors and established a sugar factory under Public Private Partnership to create more jobs and encourage the consumption of made-in-Ghana products to reduce importation.

On Ebola, Mr. Sarpong said government had put appropriate measures through the provision of equipment to the health personnel and facilities to prevent the outbreak of the disease and also to ensure readiness for its containment should it breakout.

“The People have the responsibility to avoid eating bush meat and as well avoid shaking hands and cultivate the habit of washing hands with soap and water before we eating, ” he advised.

Mr.Jonny Osei Kofi, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing said 16 boreholes were going to be revamped to make water available to the people in Wa.

He said eight additional boreholes would also be provided while efforts were being made to take water from the Black Volta River for Wa at a cost of 51.5 million US dollars.

The World Bank sponsored project when completed, would provide about 3.3 million gallons of water for the Wa Township and its suburbs.

The Community Water and Sanitation Agency would also drill more boreholes in the communities and mechanise some of them to provide potable water for the people under the small town water system project.

Some participants at the forum, called on government to decentralize the payroll system to allow payment of government workers on regional basis.

According them, that would help address the challenges of ghost names on government payroll and save money for the provision of basic social development projects.

The participants also expressed concern about the poor quality of work done by road contractors on road projects, saying: “Qualities of works on roads are not the best”.

Some participants were not also happy about the behaviour of some National Democratic Congress functionaries who had taken the law into their own hands and had vandalized the office equipment belonging to the district assembly.

They also succeeded to oust Mr. Moses Luri , the Sissala West District, Chief Executive by locking up his office, seized his official car and he has to take refuge in Tumu.

That behaviour, they said was bad and called for an end to it because it has the potential for emulation by some party functionaries in some of the districts in the region if immediate action was not taken to bring the actors to book to deter others.

On the shoddy work done on road projects, Alhaji Amidu Sulemana admitted the practice, pointing out that there were no shoddy contractors in the system but rather shoddy engineers.