A tutor at the Asankrangwa Senior High School has attributed the perennial pollution of water bodies and the deplorable road network in the Wassa Amenfi West District of the Western Region to societal neglect and irresponsibility.
Abdula Sandowa is unhappy that stakeholders in the district are not exercising their rights and responsibilities effectively towards the total development of the district. Residents continue to lament the poor road network, deplorable educational facilities and the non-availability of potable water supply to most communities in the country’s best cocoa producing district.
The social studies teacher who was speaking in a radio interview on the rights and responsibilities of children and adults towards national development also blamed traditional authorities for the wanton destruction of fertile lands for agriculture through illegal mining. He does not understand why miners make profit from lands without paying substantial royalties towards the provision of educational and health infrastructure in the host communities.
The Wassa Amenfi West District has a total road network of 2,562 Kilometers, 220 kilometers of which are un-engineered roads with 170 Kilometers being considered partially-engineered roads.
Residents also find it difficult commuting from one community to the other due to the impassable nature of most roads in the district.
A frustrated District Chief Executive, Victor Samuel Meisu had earlier told this reporter that the insufficient nature of his district’s share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) plus the small amount of internally-generated funds and royalties are stalling his efforts at ensuring development for his people.
“The GHC4, 400 generated monthly from market tolls is not even enough to remunerate the twenty-three casual workers of the assembly and we are struggling to ensure development in all the 18 electoral areas and 300 communities in the district with the highest meager property rate of GHC20, 000 per quarter and our share of the assemblies’ common fund”, Victor Meisu pointed out. Asked what the way forward was, the DCE said revenue collectors at the assembly would soon swoop on all property rate defaulters and the expansion of the tax net in order to raise additional money to fund ongoing development projects in the district.
