The residence of Sefwi Juaboso is calling on government to construct their bad roads, most especially, the Asempaneye – Juaboso stretch as it is having diverse effects on their lives and livelihood.
Some residence speaking to the media said, the Asempaneye – Juaboso stretch have now turned into a death trap as the stretch is in a very dilapidated state.
They say the stretch is now known for the number of road accidents and its muddy state when it rains.
“Cars usually get stuck in the heavy muds when it rains. Not to even talk about the countless times trucks with goods fall and in the case of trucks carrying fragile goods, they lose most of their products.” – a native of the town said.”
Reports revealed that, contract for the construction of the said stretch was awarded to a construction company in 2011 under the late president John Evans Atta Mills but saw no improvement. Subsequently, in 2014, the construction of the same stretch was reassigned to Midwest Construction Limited but little was done to improve the state of the road.
Again, in 2017, under the Akufo Addo led government, the contract awarded to the Midwest Construction Limited was abrogated on the back of an auditing report that showed that monies spent by the contractor at the time did not match the progress of the construction.
In the same token, the construction of the stretch was re-awarded later to Amandi Construction limited. Reports show that work started sometime last year at some parts of the stretch but is lacking continuity.
They said the stretch is known for the transportation of natural resources such as timber and cocoa but residence suggests the bad roads have slowed down the business as they find it difficult to transport their farm produce to the markets and urban centers. They complain that because of their bad roads, drivers shun from plying the road to transport their produce and those that agree to transport their produce, charge them extremely high fares.
Health delivery was another concern of the people of Sefwi Juaboso. They say owing to the poor state of their roads, transporting people in need of medical attention becomes a problem. They recounted as some members of the community lost their lives as there was a delay in getting them to the hospital.
Drivers also voiced out the high cost of maintenance they have to deal with day in, day out as they use the stretch. Some drivers said, aside battling with high maintenance cost, their vehicles sometimes breakdown in the middle of the road and this, so very often, happens late in the day and they are forced to spend the night in their vehicles which they describe as dangerous.
Speaking to the media, the Chief of Asempaneye, Nana Kwaw Asante Bediatu 1 said he feels the people of his town are left out of the national cake and also pled with the government to see to the completion of their roads.
“We are the leading producer of cocoa; we have gold and a lot of natural resources but we are left out, especially on our roads. So we are appealing to the government to come to our aid.”
