Residents of Torgodo in the Yilo Krobo Municipality are appealing to government to construct a bridge over a major river in the area.
Currently, residents including pregnant women and school children risk their lives to walk through river Ponpong which has overflowed its banks.
The calls come after a four-year-old boy drowned in the river while crossing with his friend on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.
The body of the deceased -Tetteh Osmond- is yet to be retrieved despite a search by a joint team of Police, NADMO and local divers.
Torgodo is a farming community near Nyamebekyere under the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region. Torgodo and its surrounding farming communities have a population of over 2000, mostly peasant farmers.
However, there is no access road to the community. Residents of Torgodo and its nearby villages including schoolchildren and Pregnant Women risk their lives every day to walk through River Ponpong when it overflows.
Though the community has constructed a small wooden bridge on the river to aid their crossing it gets submerged at the slightest rainfall compelling residents to walk through the river.
According to the Chief of Torgodo, Nene Alex Tetteh, school children have had to sit home for months when the river overflows while those at JHS are carried on shoulder to cross.
Recent heavy downpour has led to the overflow of the river and residents are forced to cross with the water level around the waist carrying foodstuffs to market centres.
The absent of proper bridge over the river and lack of road network is affecting residents particularly women who mostly go to market and worst of all during labour.
“Women in this community suffer alot because of the absent of a bridge over the river. We carry foodstuffs walk through the river to the market. Sometimes it has to take our husbands to save us from drowning. For pregnant women, it is horrendous to see. We have planned not to vote for any assembly member or President or MP again until they construct bridge and road â€.
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Stephen Numutsu, an Aspiring Assembly Member in the Area, wants temporal long concrete footbridge constructed over the river to aid school children to go to school without siting home for while farmers transport their foodstuffs to market centres to make income.
Credit: Starr FM