Torgodo schoolchildren swim to sch. when it rains; no bridge to cross river

Residents of Torgodo in the Yilo Krobo Municipality are appealing to government to construct a bridge over a major river in the area.

Currently, residents including pregnant women and schoolchildren risk their lives to walk through river Ponpon which has overflowed its banks.

The calls come after a four year old boy drowned in the river while crossing with his friend Wednesday October 16,2019.

The body of the deceased -Tetteh Osmond- is yet to be retrieved despite search by joint team of Police, NADMO and local divers.

Torgodo is farming community near Nyamebekyere under the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region. Torgodo and its surrounding farming communities have a population of over 2000, mostly peasant farmers. However there is no access road to the community.

Kojo Ansah is Starr News correspondent who visited the community Residents of Torgodo and its nearby villages including schoolchildren and Pregnant Women risk their lives everyday to walk through River Ponpong when it overflows

Though the community has constructed a small wooden bridge on the river to aid their crossing it gets submerged at the slightest rainfall compelling residents to walk through the river.

According to the Chief of Torgodo, Nene Alex Tetteh, schoolchildren have had to sit home for months when the river over flows while those at JHS are carried on shoulder to cross .

Recent heavy downpour has led to the overflow of the river and residents are forced to cross with the water level around the waist carrying food stuffs to market centers.

The absent of proper bridge over the river and lack of road network is affecting residents particularly women who mostly go to market and worst of all during labor.

“Women in this community suffer alot because of the absent of a bridge over the river. We carry food stuffs walk through the river to market. Sometime it has to take our husbands to save us from drowning. For pregnant women, it is horrendous to see. We have planned not to vote for any assembly member or President or MP again until they construct bridge and road ”

Stephen Numutsu, an Aspiring Assembly Member in the Area, wants temporal long concrete footbridge constructed over the river to aid school children go to school without siting home for while farmers transport their food stuffs to market centers to make income.