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| Some residents of Akilika crossing river Bonsa |
Akilika is one vibrate farming community that sits behind river
Bonsa. In 2015, Akilika was adjudged the best cocoa producing community in the
Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality by COCOBOD.
With a population of about 2000, the community lack basic social
amenities like electricity, portable drinking water, health center among
others.
Children of school going age are currently on an indefinite
holiday in Akilika because their Teachers have decided not to risk their lives
anymore on the River Bonsa in a dilapidated canoe all in an attempt to teach
the children.
Speaking to the head teacher of Akilika M/A Basic School, Richard
Yaw Beyuo who has been teaching in the school for 10 years now explained that,
they have been living dreadfully each day of their lives since they were posted
to the Akilika M/A Basic School knowing that they would have to cross River
Bonsa in a dilapidated canoe before they can render the required service to the
community.
According to him, a big tree fell on the canoe in October 2015 and
since that time effects to get a new canoe from the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal
Assembly through the Ghana Education Service has all fallen on deaf ears.
“This year a
big tree fell on the canoe perforating holes into the canoe allowing water to
seep into the canon and we have trying to get a new one but all to no avail.
That is from October 2015 to July 2016, so on the 13th of June 2016,
the river overflowed again and I wrote to the district education director
explaining that, we cannot continue risking our lives on the river anymore”.
The dilapidated canon carries a maximum of four people at a time
and they must always ensure that they collect water seeping into the canon
every second they spend in it less they all drown.
Meanwhile the promises made by NADMO and the Tarkwa Nsuaem
Municipal Assembly four years ago to construct a walking bridge on the river when
four people lost their lives in a canoe on the same river has still not seen
the light of day.
The situation which has compelled teachers of Akilika M/A Basic
School to abandoning the school still poses a threats to the lives that travels
on the river every day to carry out their business until they get a new canoe.
The head teacher pleads “that they will provide us with a teachers
quarters in the community or build a bridge on the river for us. Else, the
children will suffer in their education since the situation is a daily ritual”.
The Chief of Akilika, Godson Sadekla said that “the education of
our children has become a worry to us since they will be sitting the same exams
with other children studying the same syllabus elsewhere. Now who do we blame
if they fail in their examination?”
Now the future of these children in Akilika lies in the construction
of a foot bridge on River Bonsa to easy their movements to and from the Akilika
community.
End…
Akilika in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality- W/R
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