Princess Town, Cape Three Points and other communities in the Ahanta West municipality of the Western Region have been cut off from the rest of the country, following the collapse of the only bridge that links the communities to Agona Nkwanta, the municipal capital, in June this year, after a heavy downpour.
Though it is almost two months since the bridge collapsed, there are no signs that it would soon be repaired to enable the community members who are mostly farmers to transport their farm produce to the market centres.
Currently, the farmers are paying double the price they were previously paying to transport the farm produce to Takoradi and other centres because they have to offload the produce into another vehicle at the site of the collapsed bridge, before sending them to market centres.
This reporter witnessed rubber farmers for instance, offloading their cup lumps onto another vehicle waiting at the other side of the bridge before being sent to the centres for the buyers to buy.
Joseph Bodoh, Assembly Member for Princess Town told The Chronicle that the collapse of the bridge had come as a heavy cost to the community.This is because it has led to increase in transport fares.
“People transport their farm produce at a cost and then pay for another transport fare for loading and offloading to the business centres,” he said, adding “those who are sick and the dead had to be carried from one end of the bridge to cross to another, before they can be transported to health centres”.
He continued that: “at one night, an attempt to transport a corpse failed because on reaching one end of the bridge, there was no transport at the other end to send the corpse to the Mortuary for preservation. So the family had to return the corpse home for traditional preservation.
“That apart, electricity in the community is also off because the staff of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) are unable to travel across the collapsed bridge to the community to fix their power glitches. So until the bridge is fixed, there is no way the power glitches would be resolved.”
Asked whether the Municipal Assembly was aware of the plight of the pole of Princess Town, Assembly Member Bordoh answered in the affirmative.
Following the myriad challenges facing his electoral area after the collapse of the bridge, he sent a word to the chief of Princess Town, Nana AkwanziAbraba IV, who is also a Member of the Council of State.
Together with the chief, they went to the office of the Highways to inform them about the collapse of the bridge.
According to him, looking at the body language of the Ghana Highway Director, he thought the bridge would be fixed soon “but we are in August and nothing has been done”.
Meanwhile, Nana AkwanziAbraba IV who is the Divisional Chief of Princess Town has paid a visit to the site of the bridge to inspect the extent of damage. She arrived with the Managing Director of Peekob Construction, a construction firm revered in the building and maintenance of bridges to access the damage.
Ebusuapayin Nii Sabahn Quaye and Nana Akye Kessie, chief of Cape Three Points, accompanied Nana AkwanziAbraba IV.
Speaking to this reporter, the Council of State Member expressed worry over the development. “It’s a worry and we don’t even know what to do. I plead we all find ways to help in fixing the problem”.
The Princess Town Divisional stool chief continued: “I am much concerned about the sick and I think government must intervene”.As a Council of State Member, she said she would use her office to appeal for support for the fixing of the collapsed bridge.
Mr. Peter Obosu, Managing Director of Peekob Construction told the Council of state Member and chiefs of the area that for now, a temporary access route would be created for pedestrians and trucks.
