A Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, says the government is on track to collapse the Dumasi Tent Camp and relocate all displaced Appiate residents from the camp to the Future Global Resources Company’s temporary resettlement site by May 1st, 2022.
Speaking during an inspection of roofing at the temporary site and a visit to the Dumasi tent camp since the destruction of the camp by rainfall, Benito Owusu-Bio said the ministry has taken delivery of adequate roofing sheets for the temporary site and hopes to finish the roofing for use by May 1st.
“We have come here to console you, especially with the recent rainfall that brought extra hardship. The President has asked us to rebuild the permanent Appiate community for you, but we also have in mind your current welfare since the reconstruction can take about a year. This is why we arranged with Future Global Resources Limited to temporarily use their settlement site here. What was left to complete was the roofing sheets, but they informed us that the roofing sheets had been brought here.”
“So we came to see for ourselves, and we hope that by the 1st of May 2022, we will be back here to help you relocate from the tent camps into the roofed-block buildings. We will collapse all the tents for use during any future disaster. We would need everyone to move into the resettlement camp when the time comes because we don’t want to hear of any future rainfall disasters“, he said.
He added that there are 31 buildings to be roofed for the temporary resettlement which will be able to house up to 110 family units with each family at the camp acquiring a room of their own, an average of 4 individuals per family, but more rooms will be added if the need arises to ensure that everyone has a safe place of abode.
The Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Appiate Reconstruction Implementation Committee, assured the displaced Appiate residents of the government’s commitment to providing them befitting a permanent rebuilt Appiate community.
“we are at the same time working seriously on the rebuilding of Appiate town. Just recently, we advertised for contractors and architects to bring their proposals for the redevelopment of Appiate which will end on Friday 15th April. We have also submitted the architecture of the road to the Roads Ministry which has been there to do some work on that“, he said.
A Member of the Appiate Reconstruction Implementation Committee and a representative from the Ghana Institute of Architects, Blankson Hermans, who was part of the Deputy Minister’s entourage also highlighted what is happening to the 6,000 donated bags of cement.
“There are about 6,000 bags of cement received as donations, so rather than wasting them, we decided to start using them to make blocks in anticipation of using them for the foundation. From the calculations so far, we will get about 150,000 blocks from the 6,000 bags of cement which will be used for the foundation whiles we determine what to use for the supper structure“, he said.