N/R Minister tours Bole District

Gindabo, (N/R), August 17, GNA- Mr Ernest Debrah, Northern Regional Minister has expressed shock and disbelief at the pathetic conditions under which most communities in the Bole District live during his tour of the area.

The 12 communities he visited had no good drinking water, health institutions, electricity, roads, and telephone and sanitation facilities.

At Tuna, Gindabo, Kalba and Kulmasa there were erected and wired electricity poles but these had not been connected to the national electricity grid.

Also at Gindabo, a clinic constructed four years ago for the community and surrounding villages is in a very bad state with cracks on the walls, while large quantities of electricity poles have been left in the open to deteriorate waste.

Livestock farmers at Kulmasa reported a loss of more than 50 cows between last year and this year due lack of water for the animals. Some of the communities had no toilets and as such, the people were defecating indiscriminately, creating a health hazard situation because when it rains the faeces are washed into the stream, which is a source of their drinking water.

At Yipala, a feeder road linking Yipala to Bobalanyoro, which was awarded on contract last two years, had not been worked on and yet the District Chief Executive, Mr Sam Akati Mahama, did not know about it. When the Minister, accompanied by the DCE, visited the village to inspect the road, he found to his surprise that no work had been done on it.

The Minister's visit also helped save the life of a woman who had been bitten by snake. He released a vehicle to carry the woman to Tuna Hospital.

At Nakwabi, the people said no government official had ever visited the community and not a single development project had been provided them.

People in the District do not have television and radio reception from Ghana but rather neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire. Telephone reception is also not available in most communities.

The communities complained that the DCE has not visited them since he assumed duty.

At Gindabo, for instance, the Poru-wura, Salifu Sakari told newsmen accompanying the Minister that the DCE has never visited that part of the district and was therefore, a stranger to most of the people in the communities.

At Sawla, Mr Debrah inspected a clinic and a bridge over river Pozim on the Sawla-Zalikom road and later addressed a well-attended durbar of the chiefs and people to run off his two-day tour of the area. He called on supporters of all the political parties to unite and develop the area and advised the people to maintain the prevailing peace to promote development in the district.