TORRENTIAL RAINS COLLAPSE BRIDGE, CUT OFF BODADA (PAGE 46, OCT 20, 2010)

Recent torrential rains have washed away a bridge at Bodada, a farming community and the Paramount seat of the Buem Traditional Area, which links that part of the Jasikan District to the district capital in the Volta Region.
In view of this, commuters between Bodada and Jasikan have to make a detour of about 48 kilometres through Hohoe instead of the 17 kilometres between the district capital and traditional capital.
Some of the communities which have been cut off from the district capital are Bodada, Teteman, Baika and part of Bowiri which constitute the largest cocoa growing area in the Volta Region.
A sizeable quantity of cocoa produced in the area has been lockedup and farmers may be compelled to travel to Hohoe to market their produce.
The Member of Parliament for the Buem Constituency, Mr Henry Ford Kamel, told the Daily Graphic at Jasikan that the Bodada- Tetema –Baika road was “in its worst state and an embarrassment to the people”.
Mr Kamel, who is also the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, said the situation was worrying and that the affected communities and commuters were not happy with the state of the road.
He has, therefore, appealed to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to quickly come to the aid of the people under its road reconstruction programme and expressed the fear that farmers in the affected communities would take advantage of the situation to smuggle their produce across the borders.
The Volta Regional Principal Monitoring Officer of the Produce Buying Company (PBC), Mr Prosper Zegbla, asked the farmers not to smuggle their produce across the borders but to sell to their usual buying agents. He gave the assurance that the PBC would evacuate the produce to Hohoe.
For his part, Barima Bonsi II, the Jasikan District Chief Executive, said he would soon visit the area to assess the extent of damage.
He also appealed to the COCOBOD to respond quickly and install a bailey bridge to facilitate the movement of people, goods and services.
He further called on the cocoa farmers to continue sending their produce to the nearest buying centres and leave the problem of evacuation to the COCOBOD.
A Cocoa Purchasing Agent based at Bodada, Mr Alex Adom, said the people were not happy with the situation since it cost them several times more to travel on the safer routes.
Apart from that, Mr Adom said, they spent more time on the route than necessary.
He called for something to be done immediately since it was an important road in the district.