Residents of Dalun in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region have staged a protest over the poor state of the road linking the community to the district and the regional capital.
Hundreds of residents took to the streets to express their anger, saying the community had been neglected by successive governments for many years.
The Dallun community is about 35 kilometres away from the regional capital, Tamale, and is home to the Ghana Water Company treatment plant. Sand winning and vegetable farming are among the main activities that take place in the area. According to residents, the pothole-ridden road is impacting negatively on socio-economic activities in the area.
Some of the youth who spoke to Citi News threatened to block the road to press home their demands.
“Our message is simple, we are appealing to the government to tell us the truth about the status of this road; whether it has been given to a contractor or not. We need it to be fixed now, otherwise, we will go the other way and block the roads,” one of the protestors said.
Another protestor also said he could not fathom why the area, which hosts a water treatment plant that supplies water to the regional capital, Tamale, would be in such a state. “We provide water and other resources to the capital from here, but the nature of our roads is bad,” he said.
“We are appealing to the President to come to our aid so that the road will be constructed. It is affecting our health because of the dust as well. He should construct the road so that we can have our peace of mind,” another protestor also lamented.
The Vice Chairperson of the Dalun Youth Association, Mariama Alhassan, also said women and children were being severely affected by the situation as they are unable to sell their foodstuff due to the dust as children are also unable to go to school.
“If we bring our goods out, it becomes dusty. A lot of children are also not going to school because of the situation,” she said.
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