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Kalba, Ghana – Over twenty-four thousand (24,000) people resident in Kalba and other adjoining communities in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Northern Region are likely to be cut-off from the entire district in the event of a heavy rainfall.
This projection follows last Thursday dawn heavy downpour which led to the washing away of some portions of the main road linking Kalba and the district capital.
The heavy downpour washed away the gravel on the road which is still under construction thereby exposing some of the culverts and making the road almost immotorable.
According to a resident and staff of the St. Joseph Health Centre in the Kalba sub-district, about 138 pregnant Women who are at various stages of their pregnancies could be denied access to healthcare in the unlikely event of another heavy downpour.
Emmanuel Dery who is a Nutrition Officer at the St. Joseph Health Centre, the only health facility in the area, said last Thursday dawn rainfall washed off significant parts of the Kalba road, making it difficult for vehicular users.
“I fear for the women especially the pregnant women and children living in Kalba and other surrounding communities numbering 48. If we experience a similar rainfall like this May 3rd Thursday dawn rain, the whole road will probably be washed away.
“We’ll not be able to go for drugs at the district hospital, we’ll not be able to go out for vaccinations and we’ll not be able to refer critical cases to the district hospital or the Tamale Teaching Hospital if the road is washed away”, he told Savannahnewsonline.com.
Mr Dery appealed to the district authorities to immediately do something about the road for the sake of the pregnant women and children who are the most vulnerable when it comes to access to healthcare.
Checks by this reporter have revealed that, the Kalba road was awarded for construction during the John Dramani Mahama administration but work stalled when the current government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assumed office.
The Member of Parliament for the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Constituency, Mr Andrew Dari Chiwitey who confirmed this, said he raised the state of the road on the floor of parliament on November 2017 but the Minister of Roads and Highways Mr Amoako Atta said construction work stopped because of some challenges the contractor claimed he was facing.
Beyond raising the issue on the floor of parliament, the MP said he has also been in touch with the Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways Mr Anthony Karbo to remind him of the state of the road and the implications it would have on the lives of the people if it is not completed as soon as possible.
Predominantly a farming area, the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District is one of the poorest districts in the Northern Region with relatively high incidence of maternal and infant deaths caused by poor road network, lack of essential medicines and health personnel, anaemia, hemorrhage and among others.
By savannahnewsonline.com/Philip Liebs
