Hoe, Nov. 28, GNA - Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho Municipal Chief Executive has underscored the importance of traditional festivals to socio-economic and cultural development of the country, saying apart from uniting families and friends, they also served as a forum for collective planning and implementation of programmes towards community progress.

Mr Goh said this at the 21st Annual Norvisi Development Union (NORDU) Festival celebration of 11 communities at Hoe in the Ho Municipality under the theme: "Improving Basic School Educational Infrastructure".

NORDU is a development union of 11 communities in the eastern corridor of the Ho Municipality, which pool their human and material resources for the development of their communities. The festival venue, which rotates from one community to the other, earmarks a development agenda to be undertaken every year. Some of the towns in the development union are Klave, Shia, Tanyigbe, Tokokoe, Hodzo, Lume and Ave.

The Municipal Chief Executive said annual festivals offered communities the time to take stock of past year's achievements, failures and the provides an opportunity to think of how to improve upon the achievements.

Mr Goh said he considered the theme for the festival as an acceptance of a challenge by the communities to complement government's effort at improving the standard of education in the country. "It is my hope that beside the provision of infrastructure, the communities will ensure that all children of school going age are in school, now that there are no school fees to be paid at the basic level", he added.

He also called on the communities to take interest in the performance of the schools and what they could do to promote teaching and learning for better examination results. Mr Goh later commissioned a 200 million cedis water project and advised palm wine tapers, smokers, hunters, farmers and all to be wary of bush fires during this dry season. Togbe Sesinu V, Paramount Chief of Hoe, appealed to the government to improve the road network in the communities to revive both farming and commercial activities.

"I wish to state that, tarring of these roads have been long overdue", he added.

Togbe Sesinu said the inability of large trucks plying the roads to cart farm products to the market was gradually making livelihood "extinct". 28 Nov. 05