Correspondence from Eastern Region

Drivers and residents of Atua and its environs in the Eastern Region have bemoaned the bad nature of the road leading to the major hospital in the area, the Atua Government Hospital and appealed to government to repair it.

According to them, the road is so bad with rough surfaces, making driving on it very difficult especially when sending sick people to the hospital.

Some of the residents told GhanaWeb that drivers especially, commercial ones often try to dodge the numerous potholes on the road, putting the lives of pedestrians and passengers in danger.

Aside the dust, they also complained about the muddy and slippery nature of the roads whenever it rained, which they stated made it difficult for them to move freely to their destinations, adding that, the dust from the road poses some health problems for them.

The road is part of a total of 10km of roads awarded under the watch of the former Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Samuel Nuertey Ayertey which was followed with a sodcutting ceremony on September 1, 2020 but which implementation has failed to materialize. The sodcutting and subsequent loading of materials to the site brought hope and relief to the drivers, hospital staff, residents and other regular users of the road.

However, failure to undertake the project has left users and residents bitter and frustrated. Naziz Hamzah is a taxi driver and a regular user of the road having plied the stretch for the past ten years, transporting the sick to the hospital on almost a daily basis.

The disappointed driver in an interview with GhanaWeb, couldn’t hide his frustration.

“It’s very bad, it’s very bad. Imagine if somebody is sick or a pregnant woman like this, you carry her before getting to this thing [hospital] she might deliver in your car without you knowing so we’re pleading to the government to come and do the road for us, the road is very bad,” he appealed. Recalling an experience he encountered himself while conveying his wife to the Atua hospital, the taxi driver said she almost gave birth in his car because he couldn’t get her to the hospital on time due to the horrible nature of the road.

“My own wife, around 12 am, we were coming on the road and before we got to the maternity ward, she discharged the birth fluid all inside my car,” he recounted.

Though the drivers say several appeals have been made to past and present governments to fix the road, nothing has happened yet.

Famzah said “they use to tell us that they’ll come and do it but we didn’t see any improvement, that’s all what they use to tell us.”

Another driver, Seth Kwao, a resident of Nuaso told GhanaWeb that he has used the road for fifteen years now and nothing has been done to solve the problem, despite the road leading to the biggest hospital in the municipality.

“For a very long time this road became very bad. We complained to the authorities but yet they didn’t do anything about it so we are pleading if they can come to our aid and rehabilitate the road for us, I think we’ll be happy,” said Mr. Kwao.

Detailing some challenges they encountered plying the route, Kwao said apart from the situation slowing down drivers during emergency situations, the cost in terms of damaged vehicle parts is also a bother.

“You know sometimes when you have an emergency to the hospital, you may be coming fast but as soon as you turn to the hospital road, then the going becomes slow because of the bad condition of the road and normally too, we have problem with our spare parts because the road is not good. Anytime we use the road, we buy spare parts and it is costing us a lot so if the authority can come to our aid and do something about it for us,” he pleaded.

But the problem doesn’t also affect drivers, residents who live along the stretch suffer its brunt as well.

A 60-year-old resident, Joseph Kwaku Tawiah who has lived in the vicinity all his life, lost count of several promises and contracts awarded for repair works on the road which never came to fruition.

“For the last twenty-five years since the last contractor attempted repairing this road, I have not seen any further attempts to put bitumen on this road. They only come to do some resurfacing and they go away. There are no gutters along the road and when it rains, our rains are flooded with floodwaters and destroy our things,” he lamented bitterly.

The dusty nature of the road is also a bother to residents. Tetteh kwao said the problem is unbearable. “If I open my room for you now, I can’t even hang my clothing in my own room, my own room is full of dust. The dust has even given me catarrh. Even if you are cooking, the dust gets into your food because all manner of vehicles including tractors, taxis, private cars, tipper trucks, motors are all passing,” he added.

As a temporal measure to solve the problem, he appealed to the authorities to lay gutters and gravel the road to give temporal relief to drivers and residents.

Another resident, Awo Dede had similar concerns.

“The problem is that the road is very bad, we want you to fix it for us. Look at the road, if it rains we can’t contain it. The difficulties we are going through here is no joke,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Samuel Ghartey Frimpong, Administrator of Atua Government hospital when contacted by GhanaWeb for his response to how badly the situation was affecting health delivery said he was on his way to a management meeting and therefore would speak to the issue at the “appropriate time.”