Kaleo-Sankana road flooded, youth call for urgent attention

Continuous heavy rains in the Upper West Region have caused the Sankana dam in the Nadowli District to overflow its banks causing serious flooding on the Kaleo-Sankana road.

The situation has prevented pupils from attending school at Kaleo. Market women could not go to Sankana, which has a very large market while some farmers could not cross to their farms for fear of being carried away by the heavy flowing water.

Most communities in the area and other parts of the region depend on the Sankana market to buy or sell their goods.

Speaking to the media at the site, Master David Bonye, a representative of the Sankana youth said the flooding of the road had become an annual ritual and an albatross to the community.

He appealed to the government to come to their aid by constructing two big culverts that would be able to contain the pressure of the swift flowing water and prevent the annual suffering experienced by the people as a result of the perennial flooding of the road.

Master Bonye said they had received several promises from politicians concerning the construction of the road and were now tired of listening to the broken promises from politicians from the area.

Dr. Boye Bande, a Senior Lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS) and a concerned citizen of the area, said the situation could only be prevented if government redeveloped the 30-year-old dam and constructed the road as well.

Dr. Bande, who visited the site with the newsmen, advised members of the community to create spill ways for the dam to reduce the water capacity to an appreciable level.

He said if that was not done the road would continue to be flooded once the rains fall.

He noted that the road served about 30 communities and each time the road got flooded all the communities got locked up and appealed to the government to take the construction of the road as a major priority to alleviate the plight of the people.