Residents of Avoeme and Afedido, all in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region have expressed their disappointments over the bad state of their road.
The 4.2-kilometer feeder road known as the "Komla Dumor Road”, serves as the only major road that leads to the palace of the Paramount Chief of the Aflao Traditional Council, Torgbi Fiti (IV), and neighbouring Republic of Togo.
A visit to the road on Thursday, September 10, 2020, by Peter Atsu Ahianyo of GhanaWeb, revealed the unmotorable state of the road which has been abandoned for so many years by sitting governments.
Recent rainfall in the area was what covered the evidence of dust that has always characterized the Komla Dumor Road and the potholes on the road.
Speaking to GhanaWeb, the Aflao Zonal Council Chairman and Assemblyman for Teshi/Aveshi Electoral Area, Mr. Seth Afelia indicated that the road which has been there since time memorial has suffered neglect from the Municipal authorities despite several complaints.
"...government upon government, I could remember the reign of the late former President Mills. He came here to commission certain projects and visited our chiefs and promised them that something was going to be done about the road. But since then, so government upon government we have been complaining..." he said.
Mr. Afelia added that the condition of the road becomes more deteriorated whenever it rains.
"It is not easy. Sometimes you could see the adjoining lagoons, the road passes through the lagoon so when it rains heavily the lagoons try to meet each other..."
Another resident, Gadede Sewordor, who is the Akporkploe Electoral Area Unit Committee Chairman also told GhanaWeb that they hope that the road gets fixed; adding that to minimize the effect of the potholes on their cars, residents come together to fill the potholes with sand.
"What we do ourselves at times is that we fetch sand from the farms and use it to fill the holes. That is what we have been doing for now," he said.
Reaction from Ketu South Municipal Engineer
The Ketu South Municipal Engineer, Ing. Kingsley Oduro reacting to the concerns of the residents, told GhanaWeb, a feasibility study was done on the road by the 48th Engineers Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces in February 2020; emphasizing that progress would have been made if not for the emergence of COVID-19.
Mr. Oduro explained that construction of the road is not the responsibility of the Assembly but rather the central government.
"Construction of the road is capital intensive. Assemblies are normally not into the construction of roads. We just do the reshaping of the roads and sometimes, graveling of the road..." Mr. Oduro stated.
The Municipal Engineer further stated that he cannot give assurance to residents that the road will see bitumen surfacing before the year, 2020 comes to an end.
He however said, yearly maintenance of the road which will make the road somehow good and motorable will be done by the Assembly before the year ends.
"...For the normal routine maintenance, that's the reshaping, I can assure that every year that will be done for the people," he said.
