By Godwill Arthur-Mensah
Accra, Nov.10, GNA – Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, says illegal sand mining in the Keta and Ketu North districts of the Region is “a form of galamsey that must be dealt with decisively”.
He said the illegal phenomenon was being undertaken at dawn by some unscrupulous people in the Region, thus wreaking havoc on the environment compelling the Regional Security Council to constitute a taskforce to halt the practice.
Dr Letsa said this in Accra when he took his turn at the Minister’s briefing dubbed: “The State of the Region Report”.
In Keta and North Tongu, the issue is serious. We are trying to fight it and so we have established a task force to help the Municipal Security Council to address this canker,” Dr Letsa assured.
“The sea defence was done to protect the Keta coast and we are now undermining the sea protection wall through the sand mining,” the Minister lamented.
The Minister, therefore, urged all stakeholders to join forces to fight the canker.
On development infrastructure in the past five years, Dr Letsa said, the government had worked to improve the motorable sections of the Eastern Corridor Road from 30 per cent to about 80 per cent.
Dr Letsa gave the assurance that the crucial road network which connected the Greater Accra Region to the Northern Region was being given the necessary attention and only about 30 per cent of the eastern corridor road had been in good condition by December of 2016.
It included portions of the Hohoe-Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu section, which was in terrible condition, as well as the 62-km Nkwanta to Oti Damanko section, and the 96-km Oti-Damanko to Yendi road, which he claimed were not in good state.
However, he said, in the last six years, significant portions of those roads had witnessed massive improvement.
They include the 53-km (about 32.93 mi) km Have-Hohoe portion, of which 35km was now in good condition. About 22km of 30km Hohoe-Jasikan road which was completely unmotorable had now seen a major upgrade.
The Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu road, which was completely unmotorable, was built and served the adjoining communities.
The Oti-Damanko to Yendi road (96km) and the Yendi-Gushegu road (68km) in deplorable states were completed.
In all, he said, about 360km of the 457km eastern corridor road, representing about 75 per cent of the Asikuma Junction – Gushegu road network has been made motorable.
There was also the dualisation of the Ho main road, with traffic management works as well as the dualization of the Ho-Sokode roads, the Minister stated.
The Hohoe town roads were also seeing a facelift with asphalt being overlaid on the 15 km stretch of roads. Klefe town roads were also being upgraded.
The 16km Akweteh to Adaklu Waya road, and the Agbonyira-Fodome Ahor roads also underwent some bitumen surfacing, while the Dzolokpuita-Bame cocoa road had also been upgraded.
Some bridges had also been constructed to connect some cut off communities including the construction of a- 70km (about 43.5 mi) steel span bridge on the Galosota-Bomingo feeder road, the construction of the 175km spine steel bridge linking Agbenorxoe to Kpando.
GNA