The residents of Beon-Tankoo Electoral Area in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region have appealed to the government to fix a broken down footbridge on the Akanyonga River to facilitate the free movement of goods and services in the area.

Expressing the concern on behalf of the residents at a durbar of chiefs and people of Beon traditional area on Monday, the Assembly Member for the area, Mr Emmanuel Ayinpanga Akolgo, said the absence of the footbridge in the area had brought huge discomfort not only to the residents of Beon-Tankoo but to several adjoining communities in the district.

He said the footbridge collapsed in 2013 and the people of the area for the past seven years had been faced with difficulties in transporting themselves across the Akanyonga and other adjoining markets.

“Persistent appeals to the Bongo District Assembly and successive Members of Parliament (MPs) for the area to have the footbridge fixed have not yielded any positive results,” the Assemblyman claimed.

He said was what worsening the situation was that during the rainy season, “teachers and students are forced to stay out of school and most market women and other traders are unable to transport their goods to Akanyonga market, one of the biggest market centres in the Bongo District.”

He said the situation posed a challenge for the residents who lived across the collapsed footbridge to access healthcare.

“All activities in the area come to a halt whenever there is a downpour,” Mr Akolgo stressed.

According to the Assembly Member, the people of Beon-Tankoo were predominantly farmers, hence the urgent need for the government to fix the footbridge to help cart their farm produce to market centres.

He mentioned the uncompleted state of the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Tankoo as another major problem confronting the community and stated that the facility is expected to reach out to a population of more than 20,000 people in the area.

Mr Akolgo said the project was started in 2008 and several appeals to successive governments to complete it “is yet to receive the needed attention.”

He appealed to both the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Mr Peter Ayimbisa as well as the MP for Bongo, Mr Edward Bawa, to help complete work on the facility to address the health challenges of the residents, particularly maternal health-related cases.