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The government’s commitment to rebuilding Appiatse, a town in the Western Region razed by fire is on course as the reconstruction of 124 housing units is steadily progressing with a total of 6 contractors on site.
This was made known on Thursday, September 22, 2022, when the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Chairman of the Appiatse Reconstruction Implementation Team (ARIT), Benito Owusu-Bio, addressed the media after a visit to the reconstruction site.
He disclosed that the first phase of the construction will require about GH₵45 million to complete and in the second phase, GH₵80 million will be needed to complete the phase, taking into consideration the slightly affected houses which will only need roofing and other petty renovations.
“Where we are now in the construction stage, particularly the first phase and as you can see here, most of the contractors are working on the substructures which are made of normal blocks, others at the foundation level, some footings level and soon we will be at the flowing level with brickworks to hopefully commence in 5weeks time,” he continued.
According to him, the compressed earth bricks which will soon be used for the top structure of the buildings is in line with the government’s idea of an Eco-friendly, sustainable and green community which will be a model concept for other rural communities.
He added the partnering government agencies have been helpful so far as the Electricity Company of Ghana has provided the site with a transformer, and GETFund has also signed an agreement to build the school for the community among others.
He, however, called on other government agencies who are yet to join the fray to as a matter of urgency come on board, beckoning the Roads and Highways Ministry to commence the road networks, to clear the road corridors for contractors to work freely.
As part of his tour, he engaged the brick-making engineer from the Rural Housing Department, Mr Castro Kaliebu, who disclosed that a total of 4000 bricks have so far been produced, adding that with machines of a producing capacity of 11,000 a day, they are hopeful to finish production even before the stipulated time provided, if they get the required electrical power to support their work.
He assured Ghanaians and the people of Appiatse that the team will continue to visit the site and keep tabs on contractors to ensure the structures they are putting up are of a high standard and quality while urging contractors to speed up work.
Mr Benito called on Ghanaians and friends of Ghana to donate more as the ultimate target has not yet been reached.
“Work has commenced but we still have a deficit, so we are pleading with all Ghanaians and others around Ghana to come and donate to enable us fully restore the lives of the victims of Appiatse.”
He commented on a petition from the victims of Appiatse which he said demanded compensation and structural integrity. This, he noted, will be made available to the assembly but for compensation, he clarified “my sole mandate is to see to the rebuilding of Appiatse, compensation is not in my purview but I’m certain the appropriate authorities will take it up and be rest assured that what we’ve been assigned to do, we will do it to the latter.”
