The Member of Parliament for Daboya-Mankarigu constituency in the Savannah Region and Deputy Minister of Health, Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini has bemoaned the devastation caused by flood waters from the Bagre Dam to his constituents.
The development he says is making his constituents poorer as economic activities have come to a halt following the cutting off of the only road to the constituency by the floods.
The annual floods which happen along the White Volta and Mole rivers and which pass through the north Gonja district appear to be worsening.
Just as it happened in 2021, the only road to the district, the Busunu Daboya road, has been cut off for weeks now, leaving the area inaccessible.
Commuters who must travel into or out of the area have resorted to boats, a situation that is making life difficult for the people.
Alhaji Asei after touring the affected areas of the district said the situation is worsening poverty in the area.
“From the Busunu side of the constituency, we have the Mole river there that is at the south. From the Tamale side you hit the White Volta with its numerous tributaries at the north. Anytime the Bagre is spilled, we are cut off from the rest of Ghana. You can only access this place by helicopter or boats as we have done. The Busunu side where the lorries used to carry passengers and goods into Daboya town has also been cut off and as a result, we are not able to link with anywhere in Ghana, this is devastating.”
The worried-looking MP said his constituents are at the moment left at the mercy of the White Volta and the Mole river.
“We are left at the mercy of the White Volta and the Mole river. It is a very worrying development that all economic activities have come to a halt, people are not able to cart their goods from the farms to the marketing centres. Techiman and Tamale are our best bets in terms of economic activities since the linkages have been cut off, and we are in the middle, no economic activity has taken place and this has heightened poverty and deprivation.”
Alhaji Asei wants the Ministry of Roads and Highways to get a competent contractor to permanently engineer and fix the Busunu Daboya road, which has cut the constituency from the rest of the country, as soon as possible.
“I cherish my constituency very much because it is one of the constituencies that brought the government into power. We are the only constituency in the region which won for the president and the MP and when these things are happening we need to wake up as a government and so I am appealing to government and the ministry of roads and highways to come to our aid and make sure these roads especially Busunu entering Daboya is given to a competent contractor which has got the requisite skills to fix the road once and for all.”