The Okotom community in the Akuapem-North District of the Eastern Region is in dire need of social amenities. These include; good roads, potable water, educational infrastructure, electricity supply, and access to toilet facilities.
The absence of these amenities is posing a challenge to the residents with community members lamenting that the absence of these amenities makes them feel left out of the development agenda.
This situation, according to them, has adversely impacted their socio-economic lives in the area, adding that in separate interviews with GhanaWeb during its recent visit to the community, the situation has also deprived them of job opportunities.
The community is one of the numerous areas deprived of basic social amenities in the region.
The residents in the community are known to be farmers hence, they solely earn a livelihood through farming.
Okotom, located in a remote area is being faced with the challenge of access to potable water and as a result, the residents depend on contaminated surface water and a dysfunctional borehole.
The unavailability of a health facility is another pressing challenge to residents here.
This development has left residents with no option but to travel long distances through deplorable roads to access healthcare in nearby communities.
The community which is yet to be connected to the national electricity grid has a very bad access road.
The absence of electricity which deprives the young people of job opportunities has driven away many of the youth from the community.
Lamenting over the poor nature of the road, Okyeame Eni Eti, a community leader said, “Our roads are bad, we don’t have light…our source of water is bad, we are farmers but transporting our farm produce such as pineapple, cassava, cocoa, palm trees to the towns is very difficult. Taxis do not ply this community mainly through motor.”
The Okyeame also complained about the lack of potable water for the people. He recalled how the only borehole dug for the community by an NGO has become dysfunctional, forcing the people to rely on surface water for their domestic chores.
The situation, he said has affected their farming activities as the farmers have no reliable source of water to mix the farm inputs such as fertilizer for their crops.
He also said there’s only a dilapidated three-unit classroom block to serve as a school for the children in the community and appealed for additional blocks to expand the facility to serve its purpose.
A resident, Mavis Awuku also speaking in an interview reiterated the challenges confronting the community mentioned by the community leader.
According to her, women find it difficult to access healthcare especially when they go into labour due to the non-availability of vehicles and the bad nature of the roads.
The people are therefore appealing to the government and NGOs to come to their aid to address their plight.
The source of water residents of Okotom depend on for their domestic use