Bonaa chief cries for help to complete reshaping of Bonaa-Manwey road initiated by community

Correspondence from Upper West Region

For most communities and places facing developmental challenges, their first port of call to address those challenges is usually at the corridors of power.

But an exception can be made for Bonaa, a small farming community in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region.

Despite their modest earnings as a predominantly farming community, the Chief and his people come across as people imbibed with a communal spirit that drives them into taking initiatives to help themselves rather than always waiting on the government.

Through this self-help initiative drive, the people have been able to sink a borehole for themselves, built a 4-room block as a health facility for the community, and also embarked on the reshaping of an 8km Bonaa-Manwey road that hitherto was a pathway.

However, upon all these, there are still many other development challenges confronting the area, the Chief of the community has said.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, the Divisional Chief of the area, Naa Kadiri Seidu Salia III said:

"We have so many developmental challenges here. But when you are faced with such challenges but aren’t in any portfolio or authority, you cannot do anything about the situation. I'm an indigene of this place and I'm one who holds in high esteem the tradition of this place and is very much concerned about the development of Bonaa. My parents are still alive and I know they will be proud to see their son accomplish a lot of the needs of the people.

"Regarding the development challenges of the Bonaa community, we have raised the concerns to successive governments and they might have done their part but we have a lot here that needs attention. But sometimes, you may have a problem that you yourself can help solve without knowing it. The health structure here, the borehole you see in the community was done by the community members themselves and not by any government,” he said.

"Four months ago, our DCE was here and we raised concerns about our deplorable road and he told us that he would be looked at. But along the line, our youth suggested that we mobilise ourselves to do the reshaping of the road to make it more motorable. Our new Assembly member, Fatawu Mwengu, who is very dedicated to the community was even the one who ensured we secured an earth-moving machine to do the reshaping of the road for 6 days."

The Chief made an appeal for some culverts and trips of gravel to enable them to construct some bridges to finish up with the reshaping work on the 8km road.

He also called for the upgrade of the health facility in the community to become NHIS accredited to help in quality health care as most members of the community, according to him, still trek for 8km to the Loggu Health Centre that is NHIS accredited for their health care.

The Assembly Member for the Bonaa Electoral Area, Abdul-Fatawu Mwengu, in an interview, detailed the struggles the people go through to access health care in nearby communities due to the bad nature of the road and also because the health facility in the community is yet to be accredited by the NHIS.

According to him, all the roads linking to the community are unmotorable hence, the decision of the community members to select the Bonaa-Manwey pathway for reshaping to become a motorable one.

He noted that because there are streams around the area, there is a need for some bridges on the road to be constructed to avoid the road being cut off when it rains.

He, therefore, called on the District Assembly and non-governmental organizations to come to their aid with culverts and some trips of gravel to help them with the construction of the bridges.

"Bonaa is a community under the Manwey Traditional area and there are so many challenges in the Bonaa community confronting the people of Bonaa. And the Chief, his elders, and myself have taken certain steps to solve some of the challenges that we can, as we can't solve them all alone."

He also appealed to authorities for a permanent health facility in the community to qualify for the NHIS card since it's deemed below the criteria because it's categorized as a temporal structure.

“Specifically on health issues in the Bonaa community, the members here are seeking their health care services from our nearby health centre which Is Loggu Health Centre. And the distance between Bonaa and Loggu is between 7-8km. There are some health conditions that make it difficult to convey the patient on the 8km road to the health centre especially a woman in labour. Because of the bad nature of the road some pregnant women lose their pregnancy by the time they reach the health centre at Loggu or they sometimes end up giving birth along the way. But thank God we now have our own midwife but there are other conditions the facility can't handle unless at Loggu.

"Meanwhile, the NHIS people said because our facility is a temporal structure, we need to get a permanent structure before it could be accredited for the NHIS card. So, we're appealing to authorities to help us get a permanent health structure in Bonaa to enhance our quality health delivery.

"Our road from Bonaa to any of our nearby communities or to the regional capital which is Wa is bad. It is affecting us in so many ways. So, whenever we are to go Wa, Loggu, or Manwey, we find it difficult especially when it rains, the roads are often cut off. So, at times how to go to Wa to buy our farm inputs is a challenge, or after harvesting, carting the farm produce to the market centres is another greater challenge," he stated.

"It's the reason why our community members chose the 8km Bonaa-Manwey road which was a pathway for reshaping to make it motorable. Even though it's motorable now, we need some culverts and gravel to make some bridges for the road to stop rainwater and streams around the area to cut the road off," the Assembly Member added.