By P K Yankey
Ankasa(W/R),Sept 01, ,GNA – The Chiefs and people of Old Ankasa in the Jomoro Municipality have appealed to the government to speed up the construction of development projects to achieve strategic and economic benefits.
They specifically appealed for the construction of the road network from Sowodadzem junction to Ankasa forest through Amokwawsuazo to enable them to transport their farm produce to the marketing centres.
The Ankasa Conservation Area is an area in south-western Ghana, about 365 kilometres west of Accra near the border with Côte D’Ivoire and is approximately 500 kilometres which consists largely of ever green forest.
The Ankasa Conservation Area is the only wildlife protected area in Ghana that is located in the wet evergreen tropical high rain forest belt and the Ankasa, Nini, and Suhien Rivers all pass through the park, and are known for their rapids and waterfalls.
The forest has the most biological diversity of any in Ghana, with over 800 vascular plant species, 639 butterfly species, and more than 190 bird species.
Animal life includes; the elephant, bongo, leopard, chimpanzee, Diana monkey, and other primates.
The communities are endowed with cash crops such as cocoa, coconut, rubber, plantain, cassava, yam among other crops, which can potentially propel the areas’ development, but the poor road network is a disincentive to development partners.
A visit to these communities by journalists, revealed that the residents depend largely on motorcycles for transportation.
The people complained about the deplorable state of the road network linking Sowodadzem junction, Amokwawsuazo, Paradise, Fire, Frenchman and Old Ankasa, lamenting that the poor state of the road was contributing a great deal to post-harvest losses in these areas.
The deplorable state of the road network compelled commercial vehicles to abandon the communities thereby impacting negatively on the local economy as farmers and traders are stranded and food crops left to rot on farms.
Market women and inhabitants of the farming communities are the hardest hit by the situation as vehicles conveying their goods are not prepared to go to the farms and also discouraged potential tourists from visiting the area.
At Old Ankasa, a resident who is also the P.T.A Chairman of the community, Mr Charles Kyeremeh is worried the communities had not developed socio-economically over the years as a result of the deplorable state of the road.
He explained to journalists that the road network had deteriorated from bad to worse with the onset of the rainy season and that had compelled some taxi drivers who sometimes try to use the road to charge unapproved fares.
Mr Kyeremeh said the situation had made it difficult to send their farm produce to Sowodadzem, Elubo, Tikobo No.1 and Nzema Aiyinasi market centres and affected sick and pregnant women during labour as most of them are transported by only motorcycles to health facilities.
« We are suffering here, the road network here is in a very deplorable state and here is where you find the virgin forest, this is the Ankasa Forest but successive governments have failed to construct the roads linking this beautiful forest and nowadays tourists don’t come here because of the road network but we want to use this great opportunity to appeal to the government to come to our aid », he lamented.
The P.T.A Chairman of the area, Mr. Charles Kyeremah said the community had no place of convenience, compelling residents to ease themselves in the bush and therefore appealed to the government to construct a modern toilet facility for them.
He also decried the lack of potable water and health facility in the area and pleaded with the government to come to their aid.
Mr Kyeremeh also appealed to the government to provide them with communication network for them to have access to information and be in tune with local and global issues.
« We don’t have any communication network here and we can’t make calls and whenever we want to make calls we have to go and climb trees before we can make calls and we are begging the government to help us, we are suffering too much », he appealed.
The visit also revealed that the Ankasa Conservation Area lacks staff and some residents of the area have appealed to the government to recruit more staff to beef up security at the forest.
They also used the opportunity to appeal to the Ministry of Tourism to develop the Forest to attract more tourists to the area to boost the local economy.
