Kpone-Katamanso residents to vote with their feet over poor roads

Residents in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality have expressed worry over the poor road network in their communities, which makes driving a very tedious and unpleasant experience.

According to the residents, they do not understand why the Municipal Assembly had allowed roads in the municipality to deteriorate to that extent.

Speaking in separate interviews with The Chronicle on Monday, the residents appealed to the Kpone-Katamanso Municipal Chief Executive, Solomon Appiah, to consider their plight and use his office to put in place measures to ensure that even if the roads cannot be tarred completely, the surface must be made motorable for them.

“Our roads are very bad and full of dust. By the time you close from shop in the evening, the colour of your dress and body have changed, as though you went to the mining site,” Madam Beatrice Arthur, a resident of Kpone, bemoaned.

The drivers, especially commercial ones, from across the municipality have a different and a more heart-wrenching tale to narrate.

“Because of the poor nature of our roads, though we are working, our situation is like working, and yet not making any profit. You see, you use all the money you make at the end of the week to buy spare parts to maintain your vehicle, very pathetic.

“I used to save some money every week, but now I can no longer do that, because that money always goes into the purchase of spare parts to fix my car, because if I don’t do that, the next day I can’t go to work.

Towns in the municipality which are hard hit include Gbetsile, Nmlitsakpo, Bediako, Bethlehem, Atadeka, New-York, Katamanso, Kubekro Nos 1 & 2, and Saasabi among others.

The distance from Kpone to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which ordinarily could be done in about six minutes, takes more than 30 minutes because of the poor nature of the road.

This stretch has become a major issue for the people, most especially road users, for the past 10 to 15 years, and no government has deemed it fit to fix it permanently.

Meanwhile, the stretch serves as an alternative route for drivers from Dahwenya, Prampram, Afienya, Nmlitsakpo, Gbetsile, and Michel Camp who want to go to Tema.

What is even sad or preposterous is the fact that the Assembly has decided to leave the road leading from the Kpone township to the Kpone Senior High School in bad shape, leaving teachers and students alike to trek long distances to and from school.

This is due to the fact that because the roads have not been fixed, drivers refuse to ply the stretch, and even if they do, they charge exorbitant prices for their services.

It is the expectation of residents and non-residents alike that with such a facility, which obviously is one of the flagship projects in the entire municipality, which both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have played politics with, our politicians would hold it with extreme care to the benefit of all.

Almost all the assembly members this reporter spoke to in connection with the poor nature of the roads in their respective electoral areas said they had reported the situation to the Assembly.