Residents of the North Gonja District of the Savannah Region are appealing to the government to construct a bridge over the White Volta for easy access to Tamale.
The White Volta provides the shortest route from Daboya to the capital of the Northern Region which serves as the major market centre of the area.
Residents resort to using boats to cross the river. They spend so much time on the river with their goods.
This year’s spillage of the Bagre dam in Burkina Faso has increased the risk of crossing the river as it overflows its banks into nearby communities and farmlands.
Assemblymember for the Daboya West electoral area, Mahama Shaibu told Citi News that several promises by successive governments to build the bridge have yielded no positive results.
“Now if you want to go to Tamale, unless you take a boat that will take you about three miles away to the military camp before you can access a vehicle. Successive governments have been telling us that they will construct this bridge but the promise is yet to materialise. So we are appealing to the president to come to our aid,” Shaibu said.
For residents, the failure of successive governments to construct the bridge means they have to keep risking their lives on the river.
They, therefore, called on the government to ensure that the bridge is constructed immediately.
“We are appealing to the government to come and construct a bridge on this river for us. We are suffering, we don’t have road to Tamale and it is at Tamale we do everything. That’s where we sell and buy all the things we need. So we need help. We are asking the president to come to our aid,” Shaibu Rubama, a resident, told Citi News.
Jamani Hudu, a boat rider, told Citi News he has been riding across the river since childhood and fears that with rising water levels this year, the entire Daboya community is at risk of being submerged.
“We can’t compare the water level this year to previous years and we’ve heard that more water will be coming through. If it continues like this for another week, half of Daboya will be submerged. [President] Kufour came and promised a bridge, Atta Mills came and said the same thing, John Mahama came and also said the same thing. This government came and said it will be done in 2019 and up until now we haven’t seen anything.”
The post Savannah Region: North Gonja residents appeal for bridge over Whilte Volta appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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