Sunyani applies to be made metropolis

Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Sunyani District Chief Executive, said the district assembly has made a request to the Ministry of Local Development and Rural Development to raise Sunyani from its urban council status to a municipality. He said in a local radio programme that documents to justify the request were sent to the ministry about three months ago.

Mr Baffour-Awuah said roads in Sunyani had not been asphalted because the urban council status of the district did not make it eligible for asphalt roads. He said the assembly was sponsoring 60 teacher trainees so that they could contribute to the programme of giving quality education to children in the district.

The assembly has spent 15 million cedis on teachers' awards and provided 600 school uniforms to be distributed to basic schools at Chiraa, Nsoatre, Koduakrom and Nkrankrom among others. Mr Baffour-Awuah said there was a delay in commissioning the new regional hospital at Sunyani because some essential items were yet to be procured.

He did not mention the items, but said everything possible was being done to procure them to complete the project. He said the assembly was spending 28.1 million cedis on public health with emphasis on HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.

The DCE said the Regional Coordinating Council, the Ghana Water Company Limited and the assembly had taken some medium to long-term measures to curb the perennial water problem in the district.

The measures include the construction of 10 boreholes at Estate Residential Area, Airport residential area and Penkwase. Mechanised boreholes haven been constructed at the Abesim Water Works to pump water into the reservoir in case of shortage.