Sunyani children's library needs renovation

Sunyani, July 6, GNA - Madam Juliana Amiziah, librarian in charge of the Sunyani Municipal Children's Library, has appealed to the Municipal Assembly to renovate the library to avert the frequent flooding of the place anytime it rains.

Madam Amiziah disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, following last Monday's heavy downpour that caused serious flooding at the premises of the library.

She said children patronizing the library had to sit on top of tables or stand to read whenever it rains.

"The place gets flooded each time it rains and this situation had existed since 2005 and lots of books have been destroyed."

She said the library serves almost all schools in Sunyani municipality but has not seen any rehabilitation since 2005 and fears the children could be electrocuted due to the poor nature of the wiring system", she said.

Madam Amiziah said several complaints had been made to the Municipal Assembly, NADMO and other stakeholders about the situation but had not yielded any fruitful results.

Mr Frederick Noble Baada, Brong-Ahafo Regional Librarian, said the library authorities threatened to close down the children's library in 2009 when the roof was ripped off during a rainstorm.

"The assembly promised to assist to rehabilitate the facility and even asked us to submit the estimates of items destroyed and we are still waiting because we do not have funds of our own to fix these things", he added.

Mr Baada said the library authorities would meet and decide whether to close down the library or not before any sad incident occurred.

"We have introduced children's reading club, which has generated reading interest among many children and if the library is closed down how can these children get access to books", he queried.

The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, Kwasi Oppong Ababio, when contacted said he could not comment on the issue because 93the situation has been there for a long time".