THE Upper Manya Krobo District, which was carved out of the vast Manya Krobo District as one of the newly-created districts, came into existence in February, 2008.
The creation of the new political entity, which is wholly a rural area with limited social amenities, was to provide more infrastructural facilities to hasten its development and make life worth living for the people in the communities, who are mostly peasant farmers.
Although the creation of the district was timely and appreciated by the people, the basic and necessary infrastructure for the smooth administration of the area was not put in place before it took off, making it very difficult for the assembly to administer it. The District lacks residential facility for the District Chief Executive (DCE), the District Co-ordinating Director (DCD) and other technocrats to direct the area’s development, and the rest of the staff are residing in Koforidua, a distance of about 40 kilometres away.They have to make a return journey to and from work with its attendant problems.
The area lacks most of the basic necessities of life such as school buildings and potable water, although the previous government did its best in that respect.
With the exception of one health facility, that is, the Asesewa Government Hospital, which primarily serves the Asesewa town and its environs, there are virtually no clinics or health posts in most of the communities.
The deplorable nature of the roads in the area has also been a major problem of the people because apart from the Koforidua-Asesewa main road and seven kilometre stretch of the Asesewa-Akateng road, which have been tarred, the rest connecting the various communities with Asesewa, the district capital, can best be described as death traps.
The roads, which are full of wide and deep pot holes, become dusty during the harmattan season, and almost impassable during the rainy season.
As a result of the situation, food stuffs such as maize, cassava, cocoyam, plantain and all types of yams produced in the area described as the bread basket of the region, usually get rotten at the farm gates.
Some of the numerous bad and almost impassable routes are the Asesewa-Konkoneh road, Akatawia-Sekesua Road, a major road tarred more than 50 years ago, which has since not been rehabilitated, the 17-kilometre Asesewa-Odometa road, the 21-kilometre Sekesua-Sutapon-Sumer road, the 10-kilometre Asesewa-Bisa road and the seven-kilometre Bisa Junction-Aframase road.
Although these roads have to be rehabilitated periodically, they still remain almost impassable, especially during the raining season because the rains wash away the top soil and create water filled pot holes.
What is more worrying is that all the streets at Asesewa, the district capital, are still not tarred because the construction firm, Modern Times, which was awarded the contract by the previous government to execute them, has abandoned it.
To remedy the situation, the district assembly has acquired a tractor to regularly reshape the roads to facilitate the transportation of foodstuffs to the main marketing centres at Asesewa, Akateng and Sekesua.
Despite the efforts by the assembly to put the roads in good shape, not much has been achieved because the rocky nature of some of the roads such as the one linking Asesewa and Konkoney makes it impossible for the tractor to work on them.
The rehabilitation of such roads requires the use of heavy construction equipment which can only be done with a heavy financial outlay which can only be met by the central government.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Joseph Angmor Tetteh is very much worried about the bad nature of the roads in the district.
He said the bad roads had been the main challenge of the assembly, compelling it to put them on its priority list.
The DCE said “We are providing more social amenities in an area where most of the communities lack the basic necessities of life, but the bad nature of the roads are hindering our efforts and progress because it is very difficult for one to move from one end to the other.
“This is also driving away investors because they can simply not go to the communities where land is available to embark upon large scale farming and other ventures,” Mr Tetteh said.
On the whole, the newly created district is forging ahead with respect to the provision of other social amenities like electricity, which is being extended to some of the communities, as well as potable water.
In the area of education, the assembly and other development partners such as Plan Ghana are putting up school buildings in most of the deprived communities. With the government initiatives like the capitation grant, free exercise books and school uniforms for pupils, of which most of them have already benefitted, parents are now relieved of their major problem—the acquisition of such items for their children.
Another point worth noting is that, some of the communities have also started putting up school buildings. One of such communities is Akateng where the people, mostly fishermen on the Volta Lake have used proceeds from the sale of pre-mix fuel to construct a six-classroom block for the local junior high school to replace a dilapidated structure.
On health, the Asesewa Government Hospital is being refurbished and an X-Ray Department has been established while an ultra-modern nutrition centre funded by a Canadian philanthropist, had also been constructed at Asesewa.
The assembly, for its part, has put up a number of social amenities. They include the renovation and construction of numerous school buildings,an Information Communication Technology (ICT) centre at Asesewa, a modern abattoir with baths and toilet facilities as well as a dressing room said to be the first of its kind for butchers also at Asesewa.
However, with all such facilities, if the road network is not improved, the inhabitants, mostly farmers will not be able to send their produce to the markets, especially during the rainy season to earn money for their livelihood and poverty will continue to be endemic in the area.
It is in this respect that the assembly should be given the necessary support to tackle the issue, especially the rehabilitation of the roads composed of rocks.
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