Council of State member bemoans poor planning of Wa Municipality

Wa, Aug. 29, GNA - Naa Seidu Braimah, a Council of State Member in the Upper West Region, has bemoaned the poor planning of the Wa Municipality and called on the Municipal Assembly Planning Unit to sit up and do the right thing to avoid disaster.

He asked members of the Assembly to monitor the activities of private developers and bring offenders to book to deter others from taking the laws into their own hands and putting up structures in all available spaces indiscriminately.

Naa Braimah, who is also the Guli-Naa, was addressing members of the Wa Municipal Assembly at its second ordinary meeting in Wa last Thursday.

He said the common saying among the Wala people that "We are all one" and therefore one should not give out the other for punishment when one does wrong or commits an offence, must be seen as an act of condoning crime and lawlessness.

"This must not be tolerated in any endeavour of our development efforts in the Municipality", Naa Braimah warned and advised members of the Assembly to work as a team and remain united to overcome the challenges rather than seeing themselves in different lenses.

"It will do nobody good if some of you are perceived to be white and other are perceived to be black, that will not help us in our commitment to develop the Municipality and win the confidence of the people", Naa Braimah advised.

Mr Duogu Yakubu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, noted that development, improvement and management of human settlements as well as the environment, constituted one of the core responsibilities of district assemblies.

He said in pursuance of that, the Assembly had tasked Survey Department to prepare a layout for Bamahu to ensure discipline in the development of physical structures there.

The Assembly had also signed a memorandum of understanding with Lands Commission to use its share of land transaction proceeds to finance the preparation of base maps and layouts for sprawling communities.

On revenue performance, Mr Yakubu said, for the first quarter, the Assembly collected GH¢75,799.11 as against GH¢68.007.50 targeted, representing 11.49 per cent increase in revenue.

Mr Yakubu announced that the Assembly had received GH¢284,188.56 as its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund and out of that amount, GH¢271,846.91 would be set aside as investment grant to take care of priority development projects. A total GH¢12,341.65 would be used for capacity building.

He said the Assembly had spent GH¢57,000.00 each on a three-unit classroom blocks and ancillary facilities at Danko and Dandaforo while it had also built a Community based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Dondoli and Sing at a cost of GH¢52,000.00.

The Ghana Education Trust Fund had provided GH¢866,808.17 for the construction of school blocks at Guli, Nakori, Kpongu, Gbegru, Boli and Wa-Sombo while three others would be built at Tampieni and Sakafatu Primary at Mangu.

Mr Yakubu said the District Wide Assistance Programme had funded the construction of a 16-seater vault chamber toilet at Dondoli at a cost of GH¢39,580.80 and a three unit classroom block and ancillary facilities at Fongo Primary school at a cost of GH¢72,183.57.

An amount of GH¢43,970.77 had been spent on the provision of furniture to six schools at Fongo, Nakori, Kparisaga, Bamahu, Tampieni and Tendamba.

Mr Yakubu reminded members of the Assembly of the upcoming national Population and Housing Census next month and urged them to ensure that it becomes successful in the Municipality.