Dandafuro assembly member laments over stalled decade-old electrification project

Correspondence from Upper West Region

Assembly Member for the Dandafuro Electoral Area in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region has raised concerns over developmental challenges in his electoral area.

He says the lack of development in some communities in the area remains a major headache to him and the people.

Speaking to GhanaWeb on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, Hon. Francis Soorinye cited the stalled decade-old electrification project at the Tampieni community as one that gives him sleepless nights.

According to him, when the project took off in 2012, the community members were ecstatic and optimistic the place would soon be connected to the national grid, only for the project to be abandoned after preparatory works for the execution of the project kickstarted.

He said the project was changed to become a self-help one in 2016 with the community expected to provide labour whilst the government supplied the materials as well as technical support through the contractor responsible for the execution of the project.

While commending the indigenes for their hard work in ensuring the project succeeded, Hon. Francis furthered that work on the project progressed smoothly until the contractor ran short of materials for the completion of the work, leaving it grounded again and the community cut off from the rest of the country.

"The electrification project in Tampieni community started way back in 2012. When they (the contracting agent) came, we were happy thinking that the end was in sight in moving away from darkness. But after the initial work of cutting down trees and digging holes, they were nowhere to be found until 2016 when they resurfaced again. However, this time around, the project came in the form of a self-help project where the government was to provide materials and technical support for the project and the community members help with labour. The contractor who took delivery of the poles and electric cables put in a lot of effort in the work until the materials got finished along the line when they were about to mount the 'high tension' stage.

And that was when the project stalled yet again. It's been a headache for the people to the point that if you ask any child about the major challenge of the area, the person would readily mention the lack of electricity in the community. The people really did well as they gave their all in terms of labour to see the project succeed," the Hon. member lamented to GhanaWeb's Upper West Regional correspondent, Ilyaas Al-Hasan.

He said he hopes for a day when Tampieni would be connected to the national grid to open up that part of his electoral area to development which can also discourage the youth from migrating to the urban centres in search of non-existent greener pastures.

Francis Soorinye told GhanaWeb that aside from the stalled electrification project at Tampieni bothering him is the deplorable Gurimuni-Kpongu road.

According to him, the road which is supposed to link the two communities is almost non-existent due to its unmotorable nature which becomes worse during the rainy season and therefore affects the farming community.

He noted this was impacting negatively on teaching and learning in the area since teachers are sometimes unable to attend school in the community to teach during the rainy season.

The Hon. member who is also the Chairman of the Agric and Environment Sub-Committee of the Wa Municipal Assembly noted that all his lobbying to get the road done has so far not yielded the needed results.

"One of my communities with yet another huge developmental challenge is the Gurimuni community. There's no road linking it to Kpongu. Yes, if I say there's no road there, I mean it isn't motorable, particularly in the rainy season. The people there are farmers and the difficulty in carting their farm produce means increased post-harvest losses year in, and year out.

Even there's also the difficulty in easily accessing farm inputs for their farming. The community has a school but during the rainy season, the school is sometimes not that effective since the teachers would find it difficult to go to the school," Hon. Francis intimated.

He indicated the challenges of these two communities were just the tip of the iceberg as many of the other communities are also riddled with similar developmental challenges each with its unique needs.

He appealed to the Municipal Assembly to turn its attention to the Dandafuro electoral area to bring respite to the people.