Save us now! Effiduase residents plead

To residents of Effiduase, a suburb of Koforidua in the Eastern Region, it would have been better to live in primitive societies than to occupy their current location in the 21st Century.
Though a well-known community in the New Juaben Municipality, Effiduase cannot boast of good facilities and building that would help improve their living standards.
A visit to the bungalows of the government workers in the community by this reporter revealed building in a dilapidated state, foretelling the near destruction of a community that has survived various ages. Speaking to residents the only sense one gets is a desperate desire to re-locate.
Roads leading to the government quarters are in a deplorable state and have developed pot holes that are now known to residents as death traps.
In the rainy season the roads become very muddy and slippery and unmotorable, and in the dry season, dusty and a source of respiratory nuisance.
According to residents, the bad nature of the road has discouraged many drivers from plying the road in both seasons and those who dare, charge exorbitant fares.
“The drivers refuse to come here and those who dare to use this pot-holed roads charge fares that are higher than usual, complained Elizabeth Fremah Appiah, an old resident of the community.
According to her, the apartments in the quarters have only a chamber and a hall, which can accommodate only a family of three. Since a lot of the families that live in these apartments are larger than three, she said, the rooms are very congested and hence has become a threat to their health.
She also lamented how the verandahs of the buildings always get wet and how the roof leaks during rain.
“The state of the quarters is really bad now, and neighbours living in them have got a very big problem to solve..,” Fremah Appiah said.
According to her, all complaints made to the District Assembly have fallen on deaf ears.
Starting to get passionate, Fremah could not understand why residents have to use their meager salaries to do rehabilitation works on state bungalows.
“Though we pay taxes, we still have to rehabilitate and paint these buildings because government has shirked its responsibilities,” Fremah Appiah complained and affirmed, “Government should be up and doing.”
“I had to use my personal income to renovate one of the buildings…and this meant that I had to postpone the payment of my ward’s school fees for a term”, she added.
The aggrieved residents have therefore appealed to the Mills administration to help them by renovating their quarters and also re-constructing the roads linking the Effiduase suburb to the centre of Koforidua, she said.
To her, government should fulfill its promise of selling the apartments to occupants on flexible terms, if it is having difficulty to manage them.
Interestingly, more than 90% of the tenants this reporter spoke to agreed with Fremah Appiah’s suggestion that the state should sell the bungalows to them, since they cannot continue to use their meager resources to conduct non-refundable renovation on the buildings.
“Why should government forget to sell the quarters to us?” Fremah Appiah asked, “We are spending a lot and we want the government to act quickly.”

STORY: ABENA OBENEWA AMRADO, GIJ INTERN