Residents of Essuekyirin the Cape Coast Metropolitan area are up in arms against city authorities over the dust and discomfort created by a stretch of untarred road through the town, which they say is affecting their health and businesses negatively.
The residents, who demonstrated this morning, blocked the road linking Cape Coast and Twifo Praso and other settlements to drum home their frustrations and appealed to the authorities to find immediate solution to the problem.
Some of the demonstrators clad in red arm and head bands along the road shared their frustrations with the GNA.
Ekow Atta and Kwame Ato, both residents of the town who took part in the demonstration, said the road which was graded about two months ago from Essuekyir to Ankaful junction had been left untarred, engulfing the residents living closer to the road in dust when vehicles pass by.
The situation, they claimed, was affecting their lifestyle, pointing to a ball of dust created by a moving vehicles, as one person remarked, “see, this is what we lived by daily,” and cautioned that they were giving the authorities a one-week ultimatum to tar the road or else they would do something untoward.
Efua Addoba, a food vendor who plies her trade at the roadside, was full of rage and said she had lost her customers due to the dusty nature of the area as they were not prepared to eat in the dusty condition.
Gladys Simons, a seamstress complained that her shop was at the roadside and therefore inhaled dust resulting in an attack that ended her at the hospital.
Another seamstress, Mary Amankwa who was spotted a large red head band, told the GNA that since the road was graded her business had been waning and that she did not know where to get the money to cater for her two children
Sergeant Raymond Asaba, the Deputy Public Relations Officer for the Central Regional Police Command, confirmed the story on phone and said it took the police a hectic tine to calm them down and the road block removed for traffic to flow.
The leadership of the demonstrators presented their petition to a representative of the Regional Minister in which they gave the contractor a one-week grace period to tar the road or water it every day or face their wrath.
