Tarkwa drivers demonstrate against poor road network

Tarkwa, Oct. 11, GNA - The Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality came to standstill on October 11 when commercial taxi drivers withdrew their services because of the bad nature of the roads in the town. As early as 0400 hours, many residents, traders and mine workers, were seen walking to work because their long wait at the taxi ranks had proved futile.

The drivers, all wearing red hand or head bands, sang, danced and marched through some principal streets of Tarkwa. They carried placards some of which read: "Tarkwa is Ghana and Ghana is Tarkwa"; "Prof. Mills, you were born here so help us;" "Tarkwa Deserves Better Roads".

Speaking to Mr. Robert Affum-Fianko, one of the organisers of the demonstration, he noted that the present state of the Tarkwa town roads were so deplorable that it was difficult to drive on them. He said the demonstration was not against Mrs. Christina Kobinah, the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Chief Executive, but was aimed at attracting the Central government's attention to the deteriorating roads. Incidentally, the assembly started filling the pot holes on September 14 at some strategic locations with the assistance of the some mining companies.

Miss Barbara Baffoe, the Public Relations Officer of the assembly, said the decision to fill the holes were only a temporary measure. She said the assembly had made the necessary office and residential accommodation ready for the Urban Roads Department to operate within the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality.

Ms. Baffoe said the filling of the pot holes were only coincidental to the demonstration and were not connected to activities of the drivers and their withdrawal of their services.

A petition signed by five organisers of the demonstration said the high costs of maintenance of vehicles, increasing cases of pedestrian accidents, dust pollution, among others, were some of the reasons for the demonstration.

It called for a quick repair of the Tarkwa roads. Mrs. Christina Kobinah, Municipal Chief Executive who received the petition pledged to forward it to the President John A. Mills. It would be recalled that assembly members of the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly on April 14 this year, called for the cancellation of ongoing road construction works within the municipality and called for the termination of the contract of K.B. Annan, describing his output as "poor and shoddy work".

They said whereas the contractor was busily filling potholes with gravels and latrite, it did not last a day for the potholes to re-emerge.

It would also be recalled that, on May 13 this year, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, made an appeal to the managements of Goldfields Tarkwa Mine and the Ghana Manganese Company Limited to as a matter of urgency assist the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly to construct its town roads.

They said the present state of road networks within Tarkwa was an eyesore and did not fit the town as a mining one. 12 Oct. 10