Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao VIII
By:
Akpabli Daniel Yao/Kpalime/VR
Also Published in THE FINDER newspaper 12/11/2019
The paramount chief of the Kpalime Traditional
Area, Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao VIII, has appealed to government to help
address the longstanding challenges in
education, water, health, roads, infrastructure and unemployment in the area.
According to him, the
failure of past and present governments to execute key projects in the Kpalime
Traditional Area for decades is disappointing, to say the least.
He was speaking at a grand durbar
at Kpalime Duga to climax the celebration of Kpalikpakpa festival of the chiefs and people of the Kpalime Traditional Area in the South Dayi District of
the Volta Region, on the theme 'Accelerated Development through Peace and Unity'.
Uncompleted school projects
Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao
VIII bemoaned several uncompleted school projects dotted around the traditional area which require the
central government and district assembly's intervention to have them completed
to improve access to and quality of education within the area.
Communities with deathtrap school buildings
He said persistent appeals
to the district assembly and central government to construct new school blocks
for communities with deathtrap school buildings have not yielded any positive
result.
Govt commended for Free SHS
He commended the government
for the Free Senior High School policy, which has given children whose parents could hitherto not afford school
fees the
chance to now have access to
secondary education.
Appeal for potable water
Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao
VIII appealed to government to expand and increase the capacity of Ghana Water
Company Limited’s (GWCL) pumping station at Kpeve, and
also
extend pipelines all the way to Duga to
supply potable water to all the communities along that stretch.
Appeal for district hospital
He noted that some of the
health posts and CHPS compounds in communities in the traditional area lack
adequate infrastructure and clinical personnel, thereby hindering effective
health service delivery.
He, therefore, appealed to the government and the Ministry of Health to
construct another hospital in the district, preferably in the Kpalime
Traditional Area, to complement the Peki Government Hospital.
14.5Km Todome-Toh road
He explained that the 14.5 kilometre
Todome-Toh road, one of the arteries under the Eastern Corridor Road project,
has been abandoned for the past three years, and
due to the dust, many residents in
communities along the road are experiencing respiratory problems.
He urged government to send
the contractor back to complete the road to facilitate smooth transportation
and save suffering residents from respiratory problems.
Appeal for 'One District, One
Factory'
Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao
VIII appealed to the 'One District, One
Factory' secretariat to situate a factory in the Kpalime Traditional Area as a
means of creating economic growth that would accelerate the development of
those areas and create jobs to help address the alarming unemployment situation.
Using Kpalikpakpa festival to conserve the environment
The Kpalime Traditional Area
is committed to using its annual Kpalikpakpa festival to
conserve the environment in the wake of rapid degradation, largely due to inconsiderate human activity.
Over 200 trees planted
The festival was launched
with ceremonial tree planting activities, with
support from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Over 200 trees were planted
to, among others, serve as vegetation cover and
wind breaks.
Togbega Atikpladza Agbi Yao
VIII bemoaned the long-term destruction
resulting from the indiscriminate felling of trees for commercial gains, and
promised to work with stakeholders to restore the environment.
“I call on all to support
the traditional area to plant more trees and clean up the
environment to enable us have a better life”, he said.
The paramount chief called on the people to uphold peace, unity and
discipline as tenets to help the area realise its developmental ambitions.
Mr John Pwamamg, acting Executive Director of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), who chaired the durbar, said a well-preserved environment
was key to development, and that the agency would adopt
Kpalime Duga as one of the areas it would work with in safeguarding the natural
environment.
He said a waste segregation
programme would be introduced in selected basic schools in the community, and
hinted that the area would host the regional celebration of the World
Environment Day next year.
Mr Rockson Dafeamekpor,
Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi Constituency, said, “As we drum and dance, let the rhythms of the drums that
present a uniform sound inform our communal
progress, and our communal spirit must
be rekindled."
The MP said that his office
had initiated tree planting activities in communities along the Volta River
with the aim of checking erosion and providing the needed vegetation cover.
He said he was engaging the
EPA, waste managers and the National Disaster
Management Organisation to address challenges arising from rising river levels,
which often flooded homes and submerged farms.
Mr Patrick Mallet, District
Chief Executive for South Dayi, said there was a lot
the area could benefit from government’s flagship programmes, adding that the assembly was aware of the challenges facing the area, and was working to have them addressed.
This year’s celebration is
the 23rd since the festival was instituted, and it is the first since Togbega
Atikpladza Agbi Yao VIII ascended the throne.
The durbar was attended by
chiefs and people from neighbouring communities, as well as dance and
cultural troupes, who kept the event in
colour.
A fundraiser was held at the
event towards the construction of a proposed chief’s palace.
Kpalikpakpa is celebrated
annually to memorialise the historical achievements of the people of Kpalime and
to reawaken the ancestral spirit of unity, which helped the seven towns in
migrating to their present location.
It is also held to help
rally the people towards the development of the area.
0 Comments