The Appiatse Reconstruction Committee headed by the Deputy Minister in charge of Lands and Forestry, Benito Owusu-Bio, has indicated that progress has been made by the Committee so far in their quest to rebuild the Appiatse Community.
Speaking at a briefing, he averred that the Committee has held meetings and subsequent visits to Appiatse to obtain first hand information on the damage caused which has necessitated the quick drafting of two tentative reconstruction plans yet to be considered and adopted by all stakeholders.
Benito Owusu-Bio assured that the committee will within the week revisit the community to engage stakeholders on the plans drafted and bring the people of Ghana up to speed on the plan adopted and when the real reconstruction will commence.
Presenting the plans for reconstruction, Director for Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Land Usage and Spacial Planning Authority (LUPSA), Mr. Mohammed Alhassan Damba, stated that the first reconstruction plan presents changes in the character of the community through enlarged but uniformed parcels of land, integrated access for pedestrian, motorized and non motorized with tree planting empathized along access ways.
Mohammed Damba noted that with the first plan, some of the people will have to be moved from their original settlement to different places because of the enlarged parcels land sizes.
Speaking on the second building plan presented, he indicated that it seeks to maintain the original character of the community with smaller land parcels and important land marks like the Chief’s Palace, Schools and churches maintaining their current positions on the land and also tree planting along access ways.
Mr. Damba stated that regardless of the differences in the plans, both seek to improve on the environment of the community with a greener and sustainable concept in mind which will make the people forget about the incident.
The LUPSA Director indicated that these two plans are subject to stakeholder consultations, factoring the people of the community who would have the final say on any of the plans presented.
Kessben Outreach Foundation donates to Appiatse
Meanwhile, the Kessben Outreach Foundation a subsidiary of the Kessben Group of Companies has donated GHC50,000 to the Appiatse Support Fund.
The Foundation on Monday, February 14, 2022, presented a dummy cheque to the committee and also indicated its plans to donate 3000 bags of cement to support the reconstruction of the community.
Speaking during the presentation, the General Manager of Kessben Media, Mr. Andrew Danso Aninkorah, averred that the company finds it compelling to donate to the fund as a means of assisting government to cater for the peculiar needs of the community.
Mr. Andrew Danso Aninkrah indicated that the Kessben Foundation is collaborating with other benevolent persons and institutions to support government with 10,000 bags of cement.
“We believe it’s an opportunity for us to show that media is not just criticizing but also leading the way and bringing people together. It’s our way of showing how media can be used for development.
“Nobody wished the Appiatse incident happened but we also want to use the opportunity to learn so that we prevent it from happening[again].”
Andrew Danso Aninkrah
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