New Edubiase (Ash), Jan 19, GNA - About 148,487.61 hectares of cocoa farms were sprayed in the Adansi East District under the mass cocoa spraying exercise.

Mr Dominic Alfred Kwaku Yeboah, the District Chief Executive, said the exercise provided employment to 1,654 people. Speaking at the people's assembly at New Edubiase last Friday, he said, this had helped to increase cocoa yields in the district.

Mr Yeboah said through the OPEC Fund, government was constructing a health post at Anhwiaso at the cost of 1.6 billion cedis, while a rural clinic was also being constructed at Fumso-Ketewa through the HIPC fund at the cost of 149 million cedis.

The DCE said the assembly built schools in 30 communities to upgrade education facilities in the district and provided textbooks, dual desks, teachers' tables and chairs for 50 schools in the district. Mr Yeboah said since good roads are important for investment the government is rehabilitating some of the roads in the district to facilitate easy accessibility to the district.

He said many communities were connected to the national grid under the Self Help Electrification Programme (SHEP) and the assembly bought poles worth 320 million cedis and distributed them to the communities. Mr Yeboah appealed to the people in the district to support the activities of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) since last year, the district spent a lot of money on disaster management. 19 Jan 04