30-Year-Old Gugura River Bridge Collapses - Struggling Workers, Residents Appeal For Reconstruction | Social

Seven months after the collapse of the 30-year-old bridge throughout the Gugura River which connects Navio and Tazika Bagtua to Paga within the Upper East Region, employees and residents proceed to battle every day to go to work and attend to their regular actions.

Residents who use that stretch of the highway every day should undergo lengthy winding various routes to get to their locations in Navrongo and Paga.

The collapse of the bridge is, due to this fact, having a unfavourable toll on financial actions within the space because it has change into very tough for merchants to embark on their buying and selling actions whereas employees battle to get to work every day.

The residents have, thus, made a passionate enchantment to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to return to their rescue and deal with the reconstruction of the collapsed metal bridge as an emergency to carry reduction to the customers of the highway.

The metal bridge throughout the Gugura River, which connects Navio and Tazika Bagtua to Paga, the capital of the Kassena Nankana District and a number of other different communities, collapsed on March 24, 2022 when a heavy-duty DAF truck with registration quantity AW 8894-12 carrying logs and heading in direction of Paga from Tangasougo in neighboring Burkina Faso was crossing it.

Stranded

Since the bridge got here down within the first quarter of this yr, many employees, particularly nurses and lecturers who use their motorbikes and private automobiles to go to work, have been dealing with challenges, with its attendant penalties on productiveness.

Other communities except for Navio who've been impacted by the collapse of the bridge are Manyoro, Natugnia, Sirigu and its environment, in addition to some border communities in Burkina Faso who additionally use the bridge to get to Paga.

A worrying growth that has arisen because of the collapse of the bridge is the truth that farmers in that enclave are unable to cart their harvested farm produce on that highway to market facilities on the market, which is a good supply of fear to them.

Furthermore, the onset of the rains in August this yr made it very tough for residents, together with college students and employees, to cross the river to school and work, compelling them to desert going to work and school.

Sadly, 5 individuals have misplaced their lives after the collapse of the bridge, together with two Burkinabes who have been on a motorcycle at evening and fell into the river since they didn't know the bridge had collapsed. Later, they each died on the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo whereas receiving therapy.

Since there was no signal mounted for customers to know of the hazard forward and so they have been additionally dashing, they crushed into the logs which the truck that triggered the collapse was carrying and sustained extreme accidents, ensuing of their loss of life.

Bridge earlier than collapse

The bridge constructed over three a long time in the past had developed severe cracks and change into weak. The concrete piers had change into weak, posing severe hazard to customers of the bridge inside its catchment space.

According to residents, the concrete piers had change into weak over time, in addition to different steel elements, apparently because of the river overflowing its banks in the course of the wet seasons.

Despite a number of appeals by residents, opinion leaders, chiefs and the Assembly Member of the realm, Roland Apugido, to the district meeting for swift motion in direction of the upkeep of the bridge to forestall an eventual collapse, no speedy motion was taken, leading to its collapse on that fortunate day.

Commuters who're bent on going via the river to both aspect with their bike are pushed via by some kids stationed there, who're paid a token after efficiently pushing their bikes via the river.

Affected residents

The Head Teacher of the Tazika Bagtua Primary School, Alfred Choro, mentioned beforehand it took him simply 10 minutes to journey his bike from Paga to attend school every day.

He mentioned “unfortunately, since the collapse of the bridge, I have to go through a bad alternative route for about an hour before reaching school”, including that “with the current increase in petroleum products, I spend GH¢30 to and from school , which is a drain on my meagre salary”.

A nurse on the Tazika Bagtua Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound, Vivian Baturu, lamented that it took her two hours to undergo one other route earlier than attending to work on daily basis.

She mentioned “the high cost of fuel is really a big challenge for us. Sometimes I skip work when I do not have money to buy fuel to go through that long alternative route to work. We are, therefore, appealing to the government to come to our aid and reconstruct the damaged bridge to bring relief to users”.

meeting member

Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the meeting member mentioned the collapse of the bridge had affected the residents in a number of methods and that there was the necessity for the bridge to be reconstructed to carry reduction to the individuals.

He said that employees who crossed the river to work on the Manyoro aspect of the bridge, in addition to farmers who additionally crossed to both aspect of the bridge to interact of their farming exercise now couldn't accomplish that.

He mentioned “due to the collapse of the bridge, farmers who hitherto could farm across the river, as well as businessmen and women are unable to travel to Paga and Navrongo to do business”.

“Particularly, students from the area who attend the Paga Community Day School cannot cross the river on a daily basis to go to school, with its attendant negative consequences on their academic performance,” he mentioned.

He famous that previous to the collapse, he wrote a number of letters to the district meeting to attract their consideration to the unhappy state of the bridge, stressing that “after its unfortunate collapse, I have followed up with a letter, hoping to receive a favorable outcome ”.

While urging the government to prioritize the development of the broken bridge, he appealed to the district to create an alternate route in order that residents may use it to get to their workplaces and different locations with none issue.