The town roads become muddy in the rainy season and dusty in dry seasons
Prestea, a popular mining community in the Prestea Huni–Valley Municipality, which has produced gold for the development of Ghana for close to a century, has been deprived of major development, especially proper road network.
The township roads, which become muddy in the rainy season and dusty in the dry season, have reduced the lifespan of vehicles that ply them and lowered the image of the town.
Commercial drivers in the town have complained repeatedly of how the deplorable nature of the town roads are making them incur losses since all their sales are used in repairing their vehicles.
The condition of the town roads has forced many shop owners whose shops are situated by the road to close down their shops for fear of contracting dust-related diseases.
The town cannot boast of a kilometre of tarred or motorable road. The #FixPresteaRoads campaign comes after two years of a promise in a mid-year budget that the inner roads would be fixed through a barter agreement Ghana government has with Sinohydro, a Chinese company. Undoubtedly, there is a contractor on site who authorities say is the one to construct the inner roads.
However, the youth are questioning why and how he is starting an important road which has been deplorable for many years from a minor branch way since October 2019 when a full stretch from Ankobra (a suburb of Prestea) to the main town is there with protruding stones and potholes.
Delivering the budget statement on Thursday June 19, 2018, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta said the Prestea inner city roads project would be one of the benefits from a barter agreement the Government of Ghana has with Sinohydro Group Limited of China, where they are investing US$2 billion into infrastructure, which includes roads.
He, therefore, identified Prestea and other towns to benefit from phase one of the project.
Two years later, the youth of Prestea are calling on the Government of Ghana to #FixPresteaRoads now. They are of the view that the contractor is laidback in delivering the contract.
