Floods cut off Garu -Tempane communities(D/G Wednesday, September 12, 2012. Back Page)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Garu A NUMBER of culverts in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region have been washed off as a result of heavy rains recorded in the area last week. The situation has led to the cutting off of some communities from the district capital due to destruction caused to the feeder roads linking those communities. Among the communities whose access roads have been delinked from Garu, the district capital are Zamballa, Bugri, Kongo, Tariganga, Basyonde, Wimpiesi and Akara. The situation added to the woes of people in these communities especially farmers and traders who now faced with the challenge of carting their produce to the available market centers. One of such roads destroyed in the floods was the Kukzua-Gagbiri feeder road where a culvert constructed in 2008 has been destroyed cutting the road into two. Another is the Basyonde to Kong o road, where another major culvert constructed in 1996 has been washed off rendering the road impassable. Also posing major transportation difficulty in the district is the uncompleted works on a number of culverts on an un-tarred road linking the district to the Bawku Municipality Briefing the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo and the Chief Executive of SADA, Alhaji Gilbert Iddi, who were on a fact finding mission to the district, the District Chief Executive for the area Mr. David Adakudugu said the latest development gives cause for concern since a number of people in affected communities have been cut off from the rest o f the district. Mr. Adakudugu appealed to government to expedite action on the stretch of damaged roads to ameliorate the hardship being faced by the people. Mr. Mark Woyongo, the Upper East Regional Minister said central government will collaborate with SADA to initiate an emergency response to help salvage the situation. For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Alhaji Gilbert Iddi promised to forward the concerns of the people to the board of SADA on what urgent action can be taken to remedy the havoc caused “I have the mandate of the SADA board to come here and assess the impact of the flood. I will forward your concerns to the board on what actions can be taken”, he assured. The Regional Director of the Department of Feeder Roads, Samuel Banini said Basyonde-Kongo road has not seen any major rehabilitation since 1996 and echoed the need for prompt action to be taken. He recommended the need for more culverts to be put in place. He said subject to the availability of funds an immediate rehabilitation work will begin. Proposed rehabilitation work on the 12 km stretch of road is estimated to cost GH c 2 million, while that of the Kukzua –Gagbiri road will require between GH c 600,000 and GH c 1 million to rehabilitate Mr. David Akurug, a commercial driver bemoaned the poor state of the Garu to Bawku stretch of road. According to him, the dusty and bumpy nature of the road which is made worse anytime it rains has made driving an unpleasant exercise as drivers have to contend with driving at a cautiously slow pace to avoid damages to their vehicles. He wondered why the construction works on that road, that connects the two districts should be delayed as such and urged the government to give the contractors the needed funds needed to speedily complete the construction works. -End-