Settlement residents mount roadblock to reiterate need to fix deplorable roads

Aggrieved residents of Agric Settlement, a suburb of Canteen in the West Gonja Municipal of the Savannah Region have mounted a road barricade in protest of the deplorable road network leading to the community.

The residents say there was an urgent need to fix the deplorable road network which has since become a death trap and a public notice.

At communal labor organized to create possible paths as road diversions for the community, the Assemblyman for the area, Ananpansah Abraham, said they had come to the crossroad where mere words and promises cannot solve the baleful problem any longer.

The disgruntled residents mounted roadblocks to prevent tipper trucks and dozers from plying the almost worn-out road to excavate gravel from the area.

According to the Assemblyman, the department of urban roads had reached out to him, thanks to the effort by the Savannah Regional Minister to assure that they were going to reshape the road, adding that, "any action to that effect needs to be urgent and now in order to prevent any unforeseeable danger ahead of the raining season".

It can be recalled that residents of Settlement some weeks ago, expressed deep worry about the destruction of the road network leading to the community.

This they said was having a heavy toll on the community and putting the lives of motorists and pedestrians, especially women, farmers and school-going children at risk.

At a community durbar to review activities for the last year 2021 and set community goals for the year 2022, the Assemblyman, Ananpansah Abraham said the extent of destruction of the road by tipper trucks and dozers used to convey gravel from the gravel pit in the area was disheartening.

He said he was brokenhearted to see the Canteen-to-Settlement road which hitherto was in very good shape and motorable, suddenly turn into a sandy and dusty path due to the gravel digging activities, which was posing economic and health risks to residents.

The situation he said, was likely to worsen during the rainy season if something is not done urgently.

The Assemblyman said these constructors and individuals have failed in their several promises to reshape the road, after the several community complaints he laid to them and stakeholders on the need to maintain the very road they were plying with their heavy-duty vehicles to harvest gravel from the area.

He appealed to the department of feeder roads and all the necessary stakeholders to come to the aid of the community.

Community opinion leaders expressed deep fear ahead of the rainy season with sudden state of the road.