Residents of Weija and its surrounding communities in the Greater Accra Region have blamed the boat accident which claimed the lives of nine school children on the delayed completion of a modular composite steel bridge sited close to the Weija Dam on River Densu at Ayigbe Town.
According to the residents, the uncompleted steel bridge is expected to serve as a vehicular and foot bridge for residents of the community, including school children who currently use boats and canoes as a means of crossing from Weija to Ayigbe Town and vice versa for school.
The residents explained that last Wednesday’s disaster that claimed the lives of nine school children could have been avoided if similar modular composite steel bridges are constructed along the Densu River crossings.
They have, therefore, appealed to the government to do everything within its power to ensure the completion of the modular composite steel bridge which they stated would stop any future loss of lives from boat disasters near the Weija Dam.
Background
Nine school children of Faana, a suburb of Bortianor in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region drowned on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, when the boat which was taking them across an estuary capsized.
The deceased children and three survivors were returning home from school at Wiaboman, a community near Dansoman when they met their untimely death. None of them was wearing a life jacket.
The tragic incident, which occurred around 5:00pm, threw the entire community into a state of shock and mourning.
Residents Fume
Speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE, an aggrieved resident who only gave his name as Tanko said, “I do not understand why our government will turn a blind eye to a project that will enhance the daily lives of the people living along the Densu River including school children.”
“How can we be living in a country where our leaders do not pay attention to anything until disasters happen? What at all do they need to see before they act appropriately?” he questioned.
Mr. Tanko said the Wednesday disaster was the second to have happened, indicating that two school children lost their lives in similar situation near the Weija Dam last year after the spillage of the dam.
Another resident of Oblogo, a community in Weija, Madam Cecilia Kumah said she was praying and hoping for the completion of the modular composite steel bridge so that parents “can at least relax when their children leave for school”.
“Imaging you have a child who always has to use a boat to school in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Won’t that give you high blood pressure any time they are not back from school,” she said.
Asked why the modular composite steel bridge over the River Densu would help the children, Madam Kumah said most the children if not all of them would abandon using boat to school knowing there’s a safe means to get to school.
She added that nobody knew the reasons for the delay in the completion of the steel bridge except the government and the contractors working on it.
“What we heard was funds have not been released, hence the delay in the project,” Madam Kumah said.
Two of the school teachers who spoke on condition of anonymity said “they had witnessed countless times school children were using the boat to come to school since that’s the only means.”
They said even though they constantly advised them to use alternative means, their counsel fell on deaf ears because “we as teachers are not in a good position to help them.”
“We were hoping the steel bridge on the Densu River could be completed on time but as it stands nobody knows what is happening to that project,” one of the teachers said.