Ho's phenomenal growth expansion and stagnation in governance

Feature by (Wilhelm Gaitu)

Ho, April 15, GNA - If the dead who once lived in Ho in foregone decades should come back to life today they would marvel at the phenomenal private sector driven infrastructure development and growth of the township.

They would be lost in amazement.

Ho is fast growing and expanding, especially on the side of private infrastructure development, a situation fast pushing the town towards becoming a municipality by itself and predictably a metropolis within a few years.

For example from just a few so called hotels dating back to the 1960s and 1970s such as the Hollywood Hotel now YMCA, Tarso Hotel and cinema and Catering rest house now Woezor Hotel Ho now boasts of some modern hotels such as Chances, Freedom Hotel now Bob Coffie Hotel, Woezor Hotel, Skyplus with its panoramic view of Ho from the "Galenkui" hills and many guest houses. Similar private sector driven developments could be seen in the health and medical fields, commerce, transportation and education to mention a few.

The new Ho began its gradual rise from the early 1990s, gathered momentum in the mid 1990s and moved into higher acceleration from 2000.

The pockets of bushes which once made the suburbs look like 93isolated cottages" where people feared trod have melted into imposing private buildings.

Ho-Dome for instance has merged into the Volta Barracks and moving towards Kpenoe on the east, a hitherto isolated community where many feared to go.

Ho-Ahoe has also grown beyond the Ho Polytechnic towards Adaklu-Kodzobi and beyond the Mawuli Estate as it raced towards Adaklu-Helekpe Ho-Bankoe has also grown beyond the Central Market, the Zongo and Taviefe-Deme towards Akoefe on the Ho-Nyive road towards Togo-Kpalime. Soon Sokode-Etoe would be unrecognisable from Ho that has already gone beyond Sokode Lokoe.

Ho is fast becoming a sprawling geographical area.

Private development in Ho is fast mushrooming and ballooning at a dizzy pa= ce. However, the local governing apparatus, the Ho Municipal Assembly, seemed to have gone into a prolonged sleep like 93Rip Van Wrinkle" in terms of its infrastructure when compared with offices of District Assemblies in the Volta Region and elsewhere in the country. But for a few alterations and additions here and there the offices of the Ho Municipal Assembly are not different from when it was an Urban Council.

Staffs of the Assembly are crammed into cubicle-like offices with little space for movement. The offices of the Municipal Chief Executive and Municipal Co-ordinating Director are no better. This is in sharp contrast with the offices of other District and Municipal Assemblies in other parts of the region including some of the new ones.

What passes as the offices of the Ho District Assembly is an apology of the status of a municipality.

If you think the offices of the Ho Municipal Assembly constitute a symbol of stagnation then you have to see the Ho Central Market and Central Lorry Station which generate the bulk of revenue for the Municipal Assembly.

Conservatively, these two essential sources of revenue for the Assembly have not seen much change since the 1970s if not the 1960s. The Central Market so to speak, made up largely of improvised sheds squeezed against each other, lack modern toilet facilities, space for vehicular and human traffic, warehouses, electricity and facilities of today's modern markets. Frustrated by the situation, the market women planned to hit the streets recently with their frustration and anger but somehow that event never took place as has always been the case in order not 93to disgrace the authorities", a market woman confided in the GNA. The least said about the Central Lorry Station the better. The Ho municipality deserves a modern central market and lorry station and equally modern satellite markets and lorry parks to match its growth and expansion.

Unless this is done sooner than later Ho would experience the spill-over of traders unto its pavements as has begun happening on the fringes of the central market and itinerant traders peddling their wares in offices.

The Health sector administration in the municipality is in similar straits as the Municipal Assembly.

The Ghana Health Service Regional Directorate has for as long as one could remember been cloistered in a one-story colonial era offices of the regional administration which it shares with the Audit Service. So dire has been the need for more office space that portions of the offices had to be partitioned and re-partitioned for want of space with some departments and divisions of the directorate located elsewhere in town. The Municipal Directorate of the GHS on the other hand is hemmed in between the Ho Municipal Hospital mortuary and the Ho Prisons. There are many infrastructure deficits in the public sector in the Ho municipality in terms of its new status, even the existing ones crying for maintenance and modernization.