Dunkwa-On-Offin (C/R), Mar 10, GNA – The Upper Denkyira East Municipality Assembly (UDEMA) has applied to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to begin a community mining programme to absorb many unemployed youths in the area.
It said about 2,000 youth would be engaged as soon as the application was approved to help curb the high rate of unemployment among the populace, reduce crime and improve the livelihoods of the people in the communities of the Assembly, which was a mining area.
Mr Ebenezer Appiah Forson, the Municipal Chief Executive of UDEMA, disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Dunkwa-on-Offin.
He mentioned a number of education and health projects were being constructed to help give the Area a face-lift and better the lot of the people.
The projects included a six-unit classroom block at Buabeng Camp, a three-unit classroom block at Twifo Kyebi , a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound each at Kwakudum, Bibianiha and Nkwanta and the building of nurses’ quarters at Mbradan.
Also, the furnishing and equipping of completed CHPS compounds, construction of more Kindergarten (KG) blocks in remote areas, construction of an ultra-modern lorry park at the Dunkwa-Ayanfuri among others were all in the pipeline.
He said the Assembly recognized the importance of the facelift to the growth of the local economy and the social wellbeing of the people and was therefore, committed to ensuring that development took off in all sectors.
Mr Forson mentioned other sectors the Assembly was impacting to include sanitation, small and medium scale businesses and roads and therefore called on all to cooperate and support the process to the benefits of all.
On sanitation, Mr Forson said the Assembly had begun monthly clean-up exercise across the Municipality to enhance sanitation in the area and boasted of being the second cleanest for five consecutive times in the Region.
Assembly members and chiefs have been tasked to conduct communal labour more often, aside the monthly clean ups by the Assembly to always keep the Area clean, he revealed.
An electoral leg table awards had been instituted to reward best communities in terms of sanitation and that had been a major effort to improve sanitation in the area.
The Assembly, he said had expanded the final disposal site of the municipality from six acres to 10 acres to ensure refuse were well disposed of and far from the communities to avoid posing health threats to the people.
Mr Forson added that motivation for refuse collectors especially the Zoomlion Company staff encouraged them do more in waste management.
In its effort to improve economic activities, people engaged in small and medium scale businesses in the area, have been sensitised to explore ways to cooperate and combine their comparative expertise and resources to support the growth of their businesses
The Assembly also briefed them on how to register their businesses to enable them secure loans from the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to boost their operations.
On roads he noted that major roads within the Municipality had been tarred by the Government through the Ministry of Roads and Transport.
They include the Dunkwa to Obuasi road and Dunkwa to Twifo Praso among others.
GNA