NANDOM YOUTH BEMOAN POOR ROAD NETWORK (D/G Monday October 20, 2008. PAGE 47)

The Bolgatanga branch of Nandom Youth and Development Association (NYDA) has called for the immediate reconstruction of the road linking the Upper East Region to the Upper West Region to facilitate the easy movement of goods and services.
According to the group, any meaningful poverty reduction strategy in the Upper West Region would require good road networks.
The group raised these concerns in a statement issued at Bolgatanga and signed by Mr John Dery and Mrs Mary Sobsaar, Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of the Bolgatanga branch of NYDA.
According to the NYDA the deplorable condition of roads linking the Upper East and Upper West regions had been a source of worry to the chiefs and people for a very long time but the time had come for something concrete to be done to stop the inconveniences they posed to travellers.
“We are particularly saddened that for some months now-since July, travellers from Bolgatanga to the Upper West Region have to go through Tamale in the Northern Region because the road between Chuchuliga in the Upper East Region and Tumu in the Upper West Region, the only route linking the two regions, has been cut off due to excessive rains,” the statement said.
It added that “a journey that should take four hours from Bolgatanga to Wa now takes about 12 hours since one has to go through the Northern Region”.
According to the statement, apart from the long hours, one has to pay about twice the fare to get to Wa, the Upper West Regional capital. “Going through Tumu, instead of paying GHc6.00, a passenger on board the Metro Mass Transport bus now pays GHc10.00 travelling by the same bus to Wa through Tamale”.
According to NYDA, “the desperate effort by government to improve on the development and the socio-economic fortunes of the people in Northern Ghana would become a fiasco as long as serious attention is not given to the poor road network in the area.”
The NYDA pointed out that the two Upper regions had suffered serious socio-economic setbacks as a result of the poor road networks since most investors and business organisations were reluctant to do business in such areas.
“We have taken cognisance of successive governments’ efforts at providing some basic amenities such as electricity, potable water, market centres, educational and health facilities for the people, but the very critical issue of a good road network is yet to be addressed”, the statement noted.
It recalled a GNA report on May 13, 2008 at Wa, in which a Minister of State in charge of Transportation, Mr Godfred Bayon Tangu, was quoted as announcing that a total of 207 kilometres of roads would be tarred in the Upper West Region this year.
“According to the minister, the roads include the Nadowli-Lawra-Hamile road and the Han-Tumu-Chuchuliga road, which links the region to the Upper East Region.”
“However, with just three months for the year to end, we wonder whether this promise by the minister would be fulfilled”, the statement said.
The Bolgatanga branch of NYDA, therefore, called on the government and the district assemblies of the affected areas to go to the plight of the people by finding a lasting solution to this problem of poor road network linking the two Upper regions.
“It must be put on record that the Upper West Region is the only region in the country that is not linked to any other region by tarred road”, the statement said.