Residents of Kpongu appeal for expansion of Health Centre

Residents of Kpongu in the Wa Municipality has appealed to the government to expand facilities at the Community Health Centre to provide quality health care services to the people.

The Centre has challenges with facilities, and as such, health personnel have to commute three kilometres daily from Wa to Kpongu to provide services.

In the absence of the personnel, any person who felt sick in the community was transported to Wa for medical attention thereby exposing the lives of patients to attacks by armed robbers and increasing cost to the people.

The Kpongu-Naa, Naa Seidu Braimah, who made the appeal during a social auditing forum at Kpongu on Friday, said the situation had caused some pregnant women in labour to lose their babies because of inadequate facilities and logistics, especially residential accommodation for staff.

The Wa Municipal Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) organised the forum to campaign, advocate and lobby for increased accountability and a reduction in corruption in Ghana.

Naa Braimah also pleaded with the Wa Municipal Assembly to establish a community market at Kpongu to help encourage farmers in the area to increase food crop production and livestock rearing to improve income generation.

He urged the government to consider the construction of a dam for the community to enable the people, especially the youth, to undertake dry season gardening.

It should also intensify efforts to open up the communities with feeder and link roads to facilitate the movements of people, goods and services.

Moomin Issahaku Tahiru, the Wa Municipal Chief Executive, in response, gave the assurance that the request would be communicated to the Municipal Assembly and health-related development non-governmental organisations for support to provide facilities at the health centre.

He also appealed to residents of Kpongu, especially stakeholders, to provide land for the Municipal Assembly to establish a community market for the people to promote economic activities.

Mr Tahiru said he would collaborate with the Department of Feeder Roads and Urban Roads to consider the provision of roads in the communities to promote business transactions.

Emmanuel Okang, a Psychiatric Nurse at the Kpongu Health Centre, mentioned malaria, anaemia, typhoid and general infections and poor food hygiene as common diseases that affect the people.

The Social Auditing Programme is part of many joint initiatives between the government of Ghana and the European Union (EU) to help to deepen Public Accountability, and to promote good governance in Ghana.

The Social Auditing Engagement is a product of the Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme (ARAP) initiative to promote community ownership of development projects and policies, raise awareness of the operations of the local government and empower the citizenry to demand accountability from duty bearers.