A Look at Deplorable Roads Vis a Vis Vehicular Accidents and Economic Development

Road as a type of transport means, is a path on land established for the movement of vehicles, humans and animals. Roads offer a dependable route for the movement of goods and services from one place to the other. For roads to effectively provide the functions described above, it should be in good shape or in other words motorable. All over the world road in the form of highways, motorways, trunk roads, arterial roads, feeder roads among others is the most widely used means of transport. It would therefore not be over the bar to   describe road transport as the leading means of transportation.

In Ghana, the importance of road transport even assumes a higher tendency and indeed not quite different from the general world spectacle. This higher importance of road transport in Ghana is overly due to poor harnessing of the other means of transport such as rail, water and air. However bad roads have become the bane of the country, subsequently impeding the effective functions of roads as a means of transportation. Statistics from the International Road Federation indicates that as at the year 2009, a percentage of only 12.59 of the total network of 109,515km had been paved, where paved roads are those roads surfaced with crushed stone, hydrocarbon binder or bituminized agents etc.

A deplorable road in itself is a recipe for vehicular accidents. It is not surprising that road accidents keep increasing day in day out with its adverse effect on the lives of road users and the country at large. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 1.3million persons are killed and additional 30-50million are injured annually in road traffic accidents. The worst part of these statistics from WHO is that majority of the road crashes, that is over 85% occur in low and middle income countries where over 81% of the world’s poor population live and own about 20% of the world’s vehicles. Unfortunately most African countries and for that matter Ghana is placed in this category.

In Ghana, it does not get any better as statistics from the National Road Safety Commission indicates that between 1990 and 2010, a total of 200,678 crashes involving 311,075 vehicles were recorded with 272,689 casualties. There is a little respite in 2010 as compared to 2009 with a marginal reduction in crashes from 2009 figure of 12,299 to 11,506.Regional breakdown places the Greater, Ashanti and Eastern regions as the worst accident prone regions with the 2010 statistics for these aforementioned regions as 5122, 1944 and 1182 respectively.

Interestingly, rural areas where agriculture is the thriving economic activity are the worst affected in terms of bad roads. This has subsequently affected productivity in the agricultural sector which is the largest sector in the Ghanaian economy employing some 60% of the country’s total employed labour. Farming and for that matter agriculture thrives on good transport system as most of the produce from agricultural activities are bulky and hence requires vehicular transport on motorable roads to the various marketing centers. However, the impassable roads coupled with inadequate storage facilities in the farming areas leads to recurring losses in earnings from agricultural sector culminating into low incomes, lower productivity among a host of other rippling adverse effects.

In concluding this piece I would appeal to the government of the day to endeavour to give facelift to the innumerable deplorable roads in the country especially the Nsawam-Suhum-Apedwa stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, Nsawam-Adeiso, Suhum-Asamankese-Kade, Nkawkaw-Atibie among others. These roads are highlighted largely because they are in the domain of the writer not necessarily because they are the most important roads that may need urgent attention.

BIOMETRIC VIOLENCE: OKYENHENE, ASANTEHENE, OTHERS MUST INTERVENE

In the traditional society of Ghana even before events of colonisation and subsequent independence of the country, traditional rulers in the capacity of kings and chiefs are highly revered and as such very influential on the livelihood of their subjects.  Though independence and its constitutional rule sought to reduce the powers of chiefs, some chiefs still wield enormous power and influence in their traditional areas of jurisdiction and even beyond.

This lengthy preamble is to set the tone for the call on highly respectable kings and chiefs such as the Asantehene, the Okyenhene among others to call out against the seeming tribal sentiments, violence, innuendos, hate speech, intemperate language among others that has characterised the ongoing biometric registration exercise. Even though Ghana is touted as a peaceful and stable country, its peace and stability could be easily derailed. It would be an understatement to distance the country from a possible war situation looking at the current happenings in the country. In as much as we would want to view these violent attacks at Odododiodio and elsewhere as pocket ones we should also be mindful of its possible escalation which can easily plunge the whole country into chaos.

It is regrettable that a mere biometric registration exercise, an exercise to compile the bio-data of electorates could raise tension so high to the extent of culminating into violence. Subsequently, the question on the lips of many well meaning Ghanaians is this ‘if this is happening with registration exercise then what would happen on the day of actual voting?’. Let us not allow party politics to create divisions in the country to the extent of plunging the country into a war situation, as the 50th independence anniversary slogan espoused clearly; we are one nation one people with one destiny.

OKYEMAN CALLS FOR A NATIONAL PARK OUT OF THE ATEWA FOREST RESERVE

Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin

It is very refreshing and commendable of the Okyeman Council to opt for a national park than a bauxite mining when confronted with these two options with regards to the Atewa forest range reserve. This decision of the council came to light at the first state council session of the year held at the Ofori Panin Fie, the palace of the Okyenhene at Kyebi.

Indeed, the Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin and his council not oblivious of the benefits of mining such as increased foreign exchange earnings for the country, job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youth, boosting of the local economy among others were also not oblivious of the environmental problems concomitant with mining, and the fact that mining in the natural undisturbed Atewa range forest has a life span of only fifty five years. It is against this backdrop that the Council considers turning the Atewa forest into a national park with its numerous benefits to a bauxite mining field.

The Okyeman council under the leadership of Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin and his team of experts clearly states the benefits of a national park out of the Atewa range forest in the following paragraphs quoted from a press release from the Akyem Abuakwa State Council Secretary E. Ampofo Duodu:

“A team of local and international scientists who have conducted a series of research in the Atewa forest have confirmed that Atewa harbours one of the healthiest and most important ecological systems in the world, with the headwaters of three important rivers in the country; Densu, Birim and Ayensu, which are essential sources of domestic, agricultural and industrial water for local communities and many of Ghana's major population centres, including the capital city, Accra.

The Atewa forest, thus, protects and provides clean water sources for much of Ghana’s human population and key elements of the country’s biodiversity. Similarly, through the process of photosynthesis, it provides the essential environmental service of continuously recycling atmospheric carbon dioxide into oxygen. That is, the Atewa forest is one of the ecosystems that produces and cleans the air Ghanaians breathe. This makes Atewa the right lung of the entire nation. Atewa is also a major source of both traditional and modern medicines.

The exclusive biological resources or ecological benefits of the Atewa forest reserve used to be threatened by illegal logging, hunting and farming activities. The major threat today is the exploitation of bauxite deposits, which could have eternal damaging effects. For about ten to fifty years, at most, the benefits to the economy from a successful bauxite operation may include foreign exchange earnings, easing of unemployment, and stimulation of local economy. Unfortunately, there is a substantial trade-off between these immediate economic gains and the ecological balance of the nation. In other words, when the Atewa forest bauxite is mined, the permanent impact on the physical environment and, for that matter, the national ecological balance may be incalculable; and the reasons are not far fetched.

Bauxite is mainly extracted by open-cast mining, which involves clearing of vegetation and the removal of the top layer of soil in order to get at the ores underneath. This has the potential of destroying: hundreds of thousands of hectares of magnificent bio-diverse forests; habitats of exotic animals and plants; natural waterfalls and headwaters of the three river systems. In addition, as soon as the bauxite ores are mined, the land will become so caustic and completely dried out to the point that it can hardly support living things and agriculture. Besides, bauxite mining leaves behind another by product toxic (known as red dust particulate) in the air, which can have serious negative impacts on public health. What makes the remote decision to mine depressing is the fact that the bauxite identified at Atewa is classified as low grade.

It is in the light of these realities that Okyeman is advocating for the upgrade of the Atewa Mountain protection status from forest reserve to a National Park. Besides protecting the nation’s ecological balance and the incredible biodiversity of Atewa for future generations, upgrading the status of Atewa to National Park will play a part in developing alternative income generation opportunities for the country and the communities surrounding the Atewa forest.

National parks serve as major attractions in eco-tourism or nature-based tourism. Thus, eco-tourism would be the most optimal industry to be developed because of Atewa's beauty, richness in species and close proximity to the capital city.  Visitation, tourism, and jobs related to recreation could contribute billions of cedis to national and local economies, while creating thousands of private sector jobs. The economic benefits extend far beyond tourism. In today’s economy, the greatest value of natural amenities and recreation opportunities often lies in the land’s ability to attract and retain people, entrepreneurs, their businesses, and the growing number of retirees who may locate to Atewa environs for quality of life reasons.

The results clearly indicate that tourism can generate considerable benefits for the local development in the structurally weak rural periphery. Specific National Park economic benefits include recreation visits, Park visitors’ expenditure, visitors staying outside the park in motels, hotels, bed and breakfasts guest houses as well as local transportation and retail purchases. Parks also impact the local and national economies through direct employment opportunities that offer wages, salaries and other payroll benefits.

Nananom also considered payments for ecosystem services or carbon credits, concluding that the economic values of the services provided by Atewa could be calculated and payments for these services made to the communities as a mechanism to protect the forest and watershed.
The Traditional Council is therefore optimistic that with careful planning and in collaboration with government, a National Park and an analogous management plan, compatible with both conservation and revenue generation goals, will be developed.”

Indeed, this is very thoughtful of the traditional council and I would take this opportunity to call for support from the government and other bodies to bring this to fruition.