Mr Ben Abdalla Bandah, Member of Parliament for Offinso South, has expressed concern about Government's delay in releasing statutory funds for development projects.

“The Government of Ghana must sit up and be more effective in the discharge of its financial obligations and release the funds on time,” the legislator told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Accra.

In an interview on development challenges, especially on water and sanitation in his Constituency, the MP, who is also the ranking member on the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee, called on the Government to not only increase statutory funds, but also ensure they were released early enough.

Mr Bandah said governance was about development; and where development was not forthcoming, governance then becomes meaningless.

He said “almost all the statutory funds are in arrears so how can development take place?

Mr Bandah said the presence of rivers such as Offin, Ordeh, Anyinasu and others in the Constituency meant that water should not have been a problem in the constituency, but pipe-borne water was currently available only in the central parts of the Offinso area.

“The rest of the communities in the constituency rely on boreholes, but some of them are in very remote parts. To mention a few such as Asuboi, Agogo, Ahwentiaand Amaning, which does not have such facilities. And even if they have, they are broken down and water is still a problem,” the MP said.

He said he had facilitated the drilling of boreholes in the Asamakama, Offinso, Abofuo, and Abofuo Junction communities.

Mr Bandah said about 120,000 people live in the constituency, which included communities like Bonsua, Amaning, Kyebi Gambia, Nkwanta, Agogo, Asuboi, Naama and Berekum.

He said the people of his constituency are mainly farmers, growing cocoa, maize, plantain, cocoyam and cassava.

Mr Bandah said some of the problems affecting the farmers in the constituency include an erratic rainfall pattern to support farming, inadequate supply of fertilizer and inaccessible road networks to the market centres.

“The effect is that on certain days, especially in the rainy season, the farmers are not able to reach the market centres with perishable farms products, since the roads are not motorable.

“Consequently, the incomes of these hardworking farmers in the Offinso South Constituency are badly affected,” Mr Bandah said.

On sanitation, he said refuse dumps sites were scarce in the constituency and feared that this could lead to the outbreak of a disease.