The local bridge at Dalaan-Yili in the Northern Region was first fixed with firewood and sticks in 2002 after some students of the area deemed it unfit to find a solution to the problem.
Residents of Dalaanyili, a community in the Nanumba South District of the Northern Region always struggle to travel to Bimbilla township during the rainy season due to barriers created by streams.
The residents during community labour managed to use firewood to construct a local bridge to enable them to cross a stream to the Bimbilla market to sell their farm products.
The Community have been wallowing in the problem for a decade now.
The local bridge was first fixed with firewood and sticks in 2002 after some students of the area deemed it unfit to find a solution to the problem.
One of the students who initiated the project, Abraham Njonaan Nlenkiba said he and his brother, Emmanuel Nlenkiba used to pass every day on the route to Bimbilla to attend school and during those days they had to carry their uniforms and put on only the panties to walk across the stream inside the water, adding that the water sometimes reaches their chest level whilst they carry their bicycles on the head.
“We often make late for class, so one day we decided to construct sticks bridge so that we can gently walk on it, after few weeks some elders tried it and fell inside the water so they also came on board to make the bridge firm to enable them to ride bicycles over it and since then, the stick-bridge is the only route from the community to Bimbila. Three communities now ply on it to get to Bimbilla during reason seasons.”
During a reconstruction of the local bridge last weekend, some Community members lamented how their women struggle to get to the major Market in Bimbilla. Adding that the local bridge collapses during raining season.
“A lot of people have had their motorbikes drown in the stream, others too got injured during the annual collapse of the bridge,” they said.
“As we fix the bridge, is only bicycles and motorbikes that can pass, Motorkings or tricycles cannot pass on it or else it collapses, so the women have to carry their wares from the house and walk across it before motor king takes them to the market”.
According to them, they have made several appeals to politicians for help but they have turned deaf ears to them.
“We once brought a contractor to estimate the cost of construction and it was estimated at the cost Ghc20,000 but the communities have not been able to raise that money”.
