BIRIM NORTH DEVELOPMENT ON COURSE...But bad roads hinder progress (PAGE 22, DEC 5)

BEFORE 1988, the Birim North District was part of the then Birim District. The Bririm District was a large area composed mainly of forests containing various tree species of economic value such as Odum, Sapele, Mahogany and Wawa.
The vast area is also an arable land suitable for the cultivation of various crops such as oil palm, citrus and cocoa, as well as cereals and tubers such as cocoyam, cassava and yam.
The district also had big and densely populated towns including Akyem Oda, Akyem Swedru and New Abirem, Afosu and numerous towns and villages.
The large land area with its corresponding large population made its development in terms of the provision of social amenities such as roads, schools, hospitals and potable water difficult although the district assembly with its headquarters at Akyem Oda did its best in this respect.
It was, therefore, decided to create the Birim North District from the mother district, the Birim District, in 1988 to facilitate the development of its communities.
The Akyemmansa District was further carved out of the Birim North making the Birim North smaller, to accelerate its development.
The new district Bririm North with its capital at New Abirem is surrounded by five districts, namely the Kwahu West, Kwaebibirem, Asante-Akyem, Akyemmansa and Atiwa.
It has an estimated population of 80,000 spread out in big towns such as New Abirem, the district capital, Ntronang, Akoasi, Pankese and Nkwateng and smaller towns and villages such as Asuobena, Kyenkyenko, Gambia and Kuntenase.
The creation of the new political entity, as expected, led to the acceleration of its development with the rehabilitation and construction of schools, roads, markets, clinics and the provision of potable water for many towns and villages.
However, since many communities could not benefit from such needed social amenities in the past eight years, the assembly, under the direction of Mr Napoleon Amoako Asiamah, the District Chief Executive (DCE), has, since his assumption of office this year, initiated an elaborate development programme to ensure that every community would have its fair share of the national cake with at least one of such amenities.
Under the programme with education as the priority, all the communities without basic schools are being provided with such facilities while old ones such as the D/A Model schools at Akwadum and Adadekrom are being renovated.
The two second cycle educational institutions in the area, the Afosu/Abirem SHS situated between the borders of Afosu and New Abirem and the St Michael’s SHS at Akoasi, have also been provided with the necessary facilities to enhance teaching and learning.
A scholarship scheme has been instituted for qualified and needy junior high school leavers in the various communities to continue their education at the senior high schools, while those with the WASSCE results are also being sponsored to pursue courses in teaching and nursing.
These students, together with others who are also being supported by the assembly at the polytechnics and the universities, are expected to come back to assist in their chosen fields to advance the development of the area.
To ensure that the area catches up with the technological world of ICT, the assembly is planning to set up an Internet facility to hook the second cycle educational institutions and also serve the public.
With regard to water and sanitation, small water systems have been provided for the people in some of the big towns like New Abirem, Ntronang, Pankese and Amuana Praso, while almost all the small towns and villages such as Yaw Tano, Wiowso, Tweapease, Larbikrom and Praso Kuma have benefited from boreholes.
The assembly’s sanitation drive is also making a good impact on the communities because it has teamed up with Zoomlion to regularly rid the communities of filth.
In anticipation of the influx of people to the area due to the operations of Newmont, a gold mining company, the assembly has acquired a large tract of land for the disposal of liquid and solid waste, particularly at New Abirem.
On health, the health centre at New Abirem has just been elevated to a full hospital status with a resident medical doctor to assist the medical assistant, all of whom have been provided with residential facilities by the assembly.
Persons living with HIV/AIDS and the physically challenged are also being supported with funds to make a living.
To boost trading, farming and micro businesses, the assembly is constructing a GH¢300,000 market complex at New Abirem together with other markets at Amuana Praso, Ntronang, Akoasi and Nkwateng.
It is also assisting some farmers to secure funds or oil palm and cocoa hybrid seedlings to expand their farms and one of the beneficiaries, Mr Kwaku Nti, from Hweakwae, who has gone into poultry farming, is grateful to the assembly for the initiative.
Tourism is also being boosted and an historic village, Praso Kuma, where the great Asante King, Osei Tutu I, was said to have died in war with the Akyems about four hundred years ago, is to be provided with the necessary facilities to cater for Ghanaian and foreign tourists.
Other facilities to be developed in the tourism sector include the township of Akrofonso, which lies on the confluence of the rivers Pra and the Nwin, with the waters of the two rivers forcing to flow to the other, making it a beautiful work of nature.
Although the district has made a headway in its development drive, the bad nature of the main roads that link the area with the rest of the country have negatively affected its development.
These roads, the New Abirem-Nkwantanan road and the New Abirem-Ayirebi road, are almost impassable during the rainy season, and so dusty during the harmattan period that those who ply them, apart from having difficulty in breathing are also covered with dust, thus preventing prospective investors from doing business in the area.
The assembly, which has acquired a grader and a tipper truck purposely to recondition the feeder roads and has done a lot in that respect has been compelled to start rehabilitating such major roads.
However, not much is being done because the workload is heavy and requires a huge financial outlay, which is beyond the reach of the assembly. The assembly has therefore called for government intervention, particularly during the harmattan before the rains set in next year.
If this is not done, there is no way the Birim North District could accomplish its development agenda and attain a municipal status as expected within the next few years due to the activities of Newmont, which has also been providing some of the social amenities for communities in its operational areas.
“We are doing our best and some of the roads, the Akoasi-Tenkyemso-Abotsikrom road and the Afoso-Tweapease Akoasi road are being rehabilitated while most communities now have the basic necessities of life such as water, schools and clinics.
“But the bad nature of the main road linking the capital with the rest of the country, which is almost impassable during the rainy season, is cutting the area from the rest of the country and we wish this problems is tackled now before the rains set in,” the DCE, Mr Amoako Asiamah, stated.
Considering the rate at which the assembly with the support of its development partners, as well as Newmont, is providing the necessary social amenities and the influx of people from the rest of the country to be engaged in the mine fields, the rehabilitation of the main road in the area would hasten the district’s development to the status of municipality in the near future.