Residents of Kodie, district capital of the Afigya Kwabre District, are in distress as all the three Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP) toilet facilities in the town are posing a health hazard and imminent source of epidemics.
A visit to the place by Ashanti File revealed that the structures that passed and served as public places of convenience are not only an eyesore, but also dilapidated.
The roofs are completely worn out, with one of the toilet facilities engulfed in refuse and overgrown with weeds, while the surroundings are littered, the walls broken, and the doors either removed or hanging. Ironically, one of such facilities is located less than 200 metres away from the rented residence of the District Chief Executive who can see this sordid situation from his bedroom.
As recently as June 16, this year, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, visited the district, addressed the Assembly, and commissioned some projects, but did not 'see' the state of the toilets.
A status report on policy initiatives and programmes by the government indicate that the Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly has embarked on a number of development projects to improve the living conditions of the people from the District Assemblies Common Fund, District Development Fund, Ghana Education Trust Fund and internally generated funds.
The projects include a three-storey administration block, assembly hall, a canteen and staff bungalows, all at Kodie, as well as 15 completed classroom blocks and teachers quarters at Tetrem, Kyekyewere, Boamang, Kyerekrom, Abroma, Soko, Kodie, Maase, Mpobi, Ejuratia and Hemang-Buoho, nurses' bungalows at Brofoyedru, mechanised water system at Ankaase and washrooms at Ahenkro.
Additionally, four KVIP toilets have been provided at Edubinsokese, Sasa, Ahenkro and Adwumakasekese with funding by the CDRDP.
It looks like providing toilet facilities for Kodie, the capital of Afigya Kwabre district, created in March 2008, is not a priority of the Assembly, which has over the past two and half years constructed eight road networks, 80 boreholes, two water maintenance systems, and the training of 160 Health Assistants across the district.
Meanwhile, the Assembly Member for Kodie, Mr. Adu Gyamfi, says the reconstituted Assembly might deliberate on the possibility of engaging a contractor to reconstruct the KVIP facilities on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, when it holds its first general meeting on July 14, 2011.
Source All Africa News