Assemblyman for Kuuri electoral area in the Nadawli-Kaleo district of the Upper West Region is lamenting the lack of basic amenities in the area.
He mentioned bad road network, inadequate healthcare facilities, schools, as well as the provision of potable drinking water as the main challenges of his people.
The Assemblyman, Dabornaah Thomas, in an interview with GhanaWeb Monday, August 29, 2022, bemoaned the many developmental challenges bedevelling the electoral area which is made up of five communities.
According to him, the major problem in the area is the main road linking the communities which is in a deplorable state needing urgent attention.
He also said that out of the five communities under his watch, only two have healthcare and water facilities. He revealed that Kuuri, which is the capital of the electoral area and the most populated, the community is without any health care facility, leaving residents with no option than trek far distances to access health care elsewhere.
Dabornaah said as a result, community members in Kuuri have embarked on a self-help project to build a heath facility which he indicated is currently at its early stages due to limited resources.
He added that just like only two communities in the electoral area having CHPS compounds as their health facilities, only two out of the five communities have been provided with a source of potable drinking water hence, the need for more water facilities to cater for the rests to prevent the people from contracting water-borne diseases due to the drinking of dirty water.
The Assembly man furthered that the only two schools in the whole of the electoral area are also in a sorry state and a disaster in waiting, as they could cave in anytime soon. He said on the back of this, school authorities are often compelled to send pupils home when the clouds turn dark.
"My electoral area consists of five communities (Kuuri, Chari- Sombo, Biire, Kuo and Kakalaa) each with its peculiar challenges. The major problem here is the road. There is this one road that cuts across the whole electoral which's in a deplorable state that needs to be fixed to give my people some respite. The second issue is about our health care. There're only two CHPS compounds here - one at Chari-Sombo and the other at Biire but the other three don't have health care facilities. Kuuri is the capital with the highest population but there is no CHPS compound there. As a result, the community members have decided to pull their own resources together to build a health facility on their own but the lack of resources has stalled work as of now."
"With regard to the provision of water, only two communities have access to potable water. In terms of education, we have only two schools in the electoral area. However, the school structures are old which are in a bad state such that we want to close them down when schools re-open to avoid any disaster. I've appealed to the Assembly about the state of the schools but we're always told there are no resources."
When GhanaWeb contacted Madam Katherine Lankono, District Chief Executive for the Nadowli-Kaleo district, she stated:
"So let me start with the water, just about 2 weeks ago, we got them some boreholes, the hand pumps are yet to be fitted. With regards to their health care and schools, the fact is that, development is not just a choice of the DCE. The Development Planning Unit of the Assembly (is the one) that goes into the communities each year togive them their priorities (and) based on those priorities, they bring them to the Assembly by the same Assembly members. So based on that, when there is resources available, we now start picking based on the high priorities. It's not like the money is sitting there and somebody doesn't want to help any community. Left to me alone, the communities would get all that they want but it is not like that and it hasn't been like that and it's not going to be like that. The Assembly doesn't have resources so, as and when we get the resources, we're going to community 'A' to do this, community 'B' to do that and community 'C' to do that. Last (time) when they got the boreholes, some communities haven't gotten."
"And the roads, the road network they're talking about, is beyond that of the Assembly, is beyond the capacity of the Assembly. Even my whole year's Common Fund cannot fix that road. Because there are big valleys, they all need big metal bridges or concrete bridges. Until those things are done, we cannot work on the road. I've explained these things to the Assembly members severally so I don't know why they are still bringing these things up. I have written to the roads ministry, I've written to Feeder roads. Until those bridges are fixed and the road fixed, we cannot do anything about the roads. Even my two years Common Fund, we cannot use it to even do a bridge."
Promising to see how the Assembly could aid the people with their self-help health care project, the DCE bemoned how contractors often shy away from executing projects for Assemblies upon knowing that the source of funding is from the Common Fund which she noted requires the person to finish the project before payments are made.
Bad road network, inadequate healthcare facilities, schools are some of the challenges