Nima residents deplore lack of basic amenities

Residents of Nima, a suburb of Accra, have expressed concern about the total neglect of the provision of social amenities for the people in the area.

The area had been deprived of basic facilities such as a permanent bridge, potable water, toilet  facilities, drains, security among others.

A former Assembly Member for the area, Mr Abubakar, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that efforts to get the government to construct the main gutter linking Nima Nafiu and Maamobi had so far proven futile.

"We cannot continue to live in this unkempt environment without any bridge to link the people to other areas and still be proud to be Ghanaians," he said.

He accused the current Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, for not concluding the project in time and causing a lot of inconvenience to the people living in the area.

Mr Abubakar said three people lost their lives in the area last year due to the cholera outbreak which hit some parts of the country.

He lamented that anytime it rained, most of the houses were washed away and as a result, most people had lost their properties.

According to him, due to the bad state of the bridge, it had become very difficult for residents of the area to cross the drain from one side to the other.

"Can you imagine the sick being carried at the back of a family member to cross this gutter?" he asked. 

A visit to the area by the Daily Graphic revealed the deplorable state of the drains choked with refuse and a number of houses washed away by the recent rains that hit parts of the country.

Mr Abubakar  said since there was no help coming from the government, the people had decided to contribute some money to construct temporary bridges to link the two communities but one of such bridges was washed away in the recent downpour.

He further lamented that since they had no proper place for the disposal of rubbish and any decent place of convenience, the people were forced to defaecate openly, thus making the area vulnerable to outbreak of diseases. 

Mr Abubakar, therefore, assured the government that if nothing was done about the situation, they would embark on a demonstration to press home their demands.