In the year of roads, residents of Adjirigarno in the Otano electoral area are reeling over what they say is the deplorable road network which is negatively affecting every area of their lives and businesses.
In an area believed to be the reserve for the elites, the residents say there is nothing elitist about their road network which has been in the slum state for several years now.
Houses have been flooded over the years with property destroyed; several walls have tumbled, the roads, especially the Eric Abankwah Amewuda Street have been left un-motorable with poor or non-existent drainage systems leaving residents stranded during every raining season.
Saturday’s heavy rainfall was no exception as some residents were left at the mercy of the violent flood waters.
Though the community members, through their various resident associations have tried to fix the problem, nothing much has been achieved.
Location
Adjirigarno is part of the Adentan Municipality in Accra, largely a residential area, and 12 km away from the University of Ghana campus.
The Otano electoral area is just a few meters away from the residence of the former President John Rawlings. The road network surrounding the former president’s residence is in good shape but few meters away from the house towards the N.T.H.C. and Buildaf Estates connecting a mini round about at Grace Mantle Church with Learning Skills Academy, Eden Vale Hotel and Open Heavens is where the trouble is.
The poor quality of the road and drainage system along that stretch is having a deleterious impact on business, residential and religious activities.
Eden Vale Hotel
Frederick Cudjoe, the Acting Manager of the EdenVale Hotel, says business is fast crumbling as a result of poor quality of road.
“Can you imagine? You can pick a guest from Airport, you get to Rawlings junction you enter and the guest gets scared and begins to wonder if he or she is still driving to a hotel in Accra or in a village. The airport drivers refuse to drive to the hotel just because of the poor quality of the road,” he said.
According to him, last year, his colleague was nearly carried away by the flood water as she tried to cross over to work.
“The MP and NADMO visited the area two years ago but not even a grader has been sent over to deal with the situation,” he added. He said several attempts to get officials of Municipal Assembly to get the problem fixed have fallen on deaf ears, adding, that in the midst of their plight, authorities have not failed to collect their property rates and business operating permit and levies.
“When you confront them they will say they are not in charge of roads. As for the Assembly, any time we go there they always say there is no money, he stated, adding, “It’s sad because Trasaaco and other surrounding areas close by have been tarred but Adjiringano and Otano which serve as gold mines to the Adentan Assembly do not get its fair share of development.
He said Eden Vale has already spent over 20,000 cedis on the road and pays around 1,000 cedis in property rates annually despite the poor nature of the road. ICGC Open Heaven.
Modestus Molampi, one of the leaders of the Open Heaven Temple of the ICGC in an interview said last year, the church decided to construct part of the road in front of the church in order to ease the burden of transportation into and out of the church premises.
Even though the inner part of the church is well designed and planned with good drainage systems, the road behind the church is difficult to ply after rainfall.
Molampi, said the poor road network remains a constraint to the church and they are trying as much as they can, with the help of the authorities to fix it permanently.
A church member at the Grace Mantle Chapel, who only gave her name as Judith said there is poor turnout at church during the raining season largely because members cannot cross rivers or leap over muddy waters on their way to church.
She wanted a quick fix to what has been years of inconvenience to the residents.
Resident Association
The Chairman of the Resident Association in the area Joseph Ofei Arthur said he had suffered many broken shafts as a result of the poor quality of roads.
According to him, no uber or other commercial drivers is ready to drive to the neighbourhood due to the poor quality of roads.
He said on their own, they have tried to build gutters in the neighborhood and approached the assembly to assist in fixing the road but nothing concrete has yet been done.
“They told us they are working on the Islamic University area and once they are done they will come to our area but it’s over a year now,” he lamented.
Assembly Man
A former Assembly man of the area Larweh Doosey in an interview said while at post, between 2015-2019, he managed to get the members of Resident Associations to assist in developing the road network but there is still a lot to be done. “We were able to cover Trassacco and other parts” but a lot of the areas need to be developed as well, he added.
He was not sure what is being done for now but hoped his successor would continue from where he left off.
Some construction workers in the neighbourhood say flood waters enter their rooms every other rainy season which washes away their hard earned property every time.
They hope something will be finally done at least in the year of roads.