Regional News of Friday, 12 April 2013

Source: GNA

KEEA MP supports constituency with streetlights

Some organisations and communities in the Komenda-Edina - Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) constituency have received 50 streetlights worth GH¢15,000.00 from the member of Parliament for the area, Dr Nana Ato Arthur.

The beneficiaries include the Kissi Health Centre, which received 10; Elmina market, seven; while the Elmina Health Centre, Agona-Abrem Health Centre and Eguafo Senior High School which received five each.

Presenting the items at separate ceremonies, Dr Nana Arthur said the donation was in response to requests made by the organisations when he visited them recently.

At the Kissi Health Centre, the MP said the lights would improve upon health care delivery in the facility since they were operating with inadequate lighting system.

He said he was also making arrangements to work on the centre’s roads, as well as provide them with medical consumables.

The Medical Assistant in charge of the centre, Mrs Irene Joyce Acquah, commended Dr Arthur for his prompt response to their request because they made the request about a month ago.

She appealed to the MP to speed up work on their deplorable conditions, adding that the centre, which averagely attended to about 80 OPD cases in a day, was saddled with problems such as the lack of residential accommodation for the staff while many of the structures had developed deep cracks that needed to be worked on immediately to avoid any disaster.

Nana Afua Badu II, the Queen and Adontenhemaa of Kissi Traditional Area, also thanked the MP for assisting the community and appealed to him to act as a matter of urgency to help construct a storm drain in the community.

She said Kissi was flood-prone and it cost them a lot of money to engage an excavator to clear the gutters.

At the Elmina market, Dr Arthur said the streetlights would help to provide security for the women in the market, who complained of regular theft of their wares at night.

The MP suggested that special market days be instituted for the Elmina market, since the women complained of low patronage at the market due to the number of smaller markets operating at the beach front.

He explained that if such special market days were instituted, all the other smaller markets would be forced to send their wares to the main Elmina market on the said market day and this, he noted, would help increase the revenue collection from the market.

Nana Dr Arthur gave the assurance that he would liaise with the municipal assembly to ensure that the special market day becomes operational by mid –year and urged the women to cooperate with the municipal assembly to ensure a smooth operation of the special market day.

Madam Ajoa Fosuwah, the Market Queen, thanked the MP for the kind gesture and said the light would help address their security needs and announced that they would like to hold the special market days on Tuesday and Thursday each week.

She noted that places like Mankessim were operating such special market days, which she said was beneficial to the market women as well as the Mfantseman Assembly, and that the Elmina Municipality stood to gain a lot if a similar market was also in operation in the area.