North-Dayi: Collapsed Aveti Bridge negatively impacting the local economy

The Aveti bridge is located on Tafi Atome and Kpando road of the Volta Region. It is an old traditional bridge serving three districts, Afadjato South, North Dayi and Kpando Districts.

To the local economy, it help commuters and farmers all alike to cart especially farm produce from the area to market centers in the enclave. Following its collapse about a month ago, residents have been faced with challenges sustaining their businesses because they will have to use alternative routes to be able to get to market centers which means a lot of time being spent on the road.

According to a native of Aveti and a commercial farmer – Adzah Francis, all efforts to get authorities to address the situation have fell on death ears. He says, “they only came to close the bridge by barricading it with metals”.

He says the situation has impacted negatively on them, he is therefore calling on authorities to ensure the bridge is rehabilitated so that economic activities in the area is brought back to life.

The Tafi Atome monkey Sanctuary, one major tourist attraction site in the area is bearing the brunt of the collapsed bridge as tourists have been finding it difficult to access the popular tourist site since. Managers of the site have appealed to the government to expedite action in addressing the situation.

Sylvester Bor who works with the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary explained that, due to the long hours tourists had to travel before getting to the sacred site, they would rather not come making the tourist site to lose revenue.

“It has also affected economic activities in the area especially the Tafi Atome township itself because people cannot sell or do other commercial activities,” he told the media.

Drivers plying Ho to Anfoega, Kpando and some other big towns are also agitating over the collapsed bridge. Richard Sesi, a driver noted that, they will have to travel additional hours to get to their various destinations and it is not helping since all monies are spent on fuel.

A frustrated Emmanuel Sekyere also added his voice, “We are suffering!…..the government must come to our rescue. The bridge must be rehabilitated to save us,” he appealed.

By Graham Kofi Baldwin