Rapid flood response targeted following extreme rainfall that burst bridges and damns across East and West Mamprusi, while growing economic demands for roads lead to tensions.
The Ghana Highways Authority is examining temporary bridges to provide rapid re-connection to communities cut off by lost bridges and damaged roads in recent severe weather.
Heavy rains washed away transport infrastructure as well as homes and farms in the region and some communities have remained inaccessible for days.
To overcome this, the government will target washed-away infrastructure for stopgap measures like temporary bridges and diversion routes, or partial re-opening of damaged roads – in some cases only for pedestrians – until more comprehensive repairs can be undertaken.
While that work is underway, the Ghana Highways Authority has already instructed engineers to prepare for comprehensive reconstruction and repair work to bring the damaged network back up to its original standards – but with new facilities to diminish the risk of further floods in future.
Cocoa Roads
Ghana’s roads sector has come under pressure from more than just flooding recently, with significant challenges for the development of new Cocoa Roads.
Cocoa roads are built by the Ghana Cocoa Board so that cocoa farmers can get their valuable product to market, and to enable them to buy in vital vital agri-industry resources used for the production of cocoa.
However, the board has announced that because the roads are not part of of its core activity, it will be halting all new cocoa roads, albeit those presently under construction will continue.
The decision raises questions for cocoa farmers about whether much-needed new access roads will be commissioned in future, perhaps by other government bodies, and what will happen when existing cocoa roads need repair and maintenance.
The same has been seen with petroleum and LNG tanker drivers, who announced strikes over concerns at the safety of roads – and the lack of upgrade delivery – on highways to three cities with vital depots.
Those strikes were abandoned as the Highways Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, committed to oversee the road improvements personally, declaring “I will be coming here once every week. If I am unable to make it, my deputy will be here.”
Amoako-Attah will be attending the Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore next month. For information on the conference, click here.
