The Agricultural Sector Improvement Programme Market under the Urban Poverty Reduction Project and Social Investment Fund was aimed at constructing market outside the community to expand development in the rural areas.
With the traditional culture of market stalls being linear to the roads, the call for safety of market stall owners and the ease of congestion in local towns is the hot topic for the day as road accidents become more commonplace. Within the Gomoa West Municipality, the Coordinating Director Peter Antwi Boasiako spoke of the future for the market, in the hope that other Assemblies with wasted potential would follow in his footsteps.
The redevelopment of the market and AFDB and GOG investment, with public consultation, means that this stark and wasted facility will have the potential to meet peoples' needs whilst trading. The project consists of a newly constructed warehouse to store goods, twenty new stalls, a school and day care facility and a further ten water closets being constructed on site. A new paved car park will also provide safe off road parking. Recently appointed Security staff and a newly constructed chain-link fence surrounding the market will provide safety and security for the market traders. Mr. Boasiako also said that an improvement on the amount of security staff would mean peace of mind for the traders. The crèche and school will allow mothers to relax and work without concern for their children and their welfare. The Car Park will provide an ease for congestion within the local town, particularly at weekends, when street are traditionally packed with cars, tro-tros and stalls and people from the surrounding area for the weekend markets. It is clear that the Coordinating Director is a man of vision, prepared to make full potential of his area. He urged that local chiefs to support the improved market, this lack of support had been one of the original reasons for the now thirteen year old market's failure to launch successfully. The newly developed market is hoped to encourage organic growth in the area benefitting the people in the future, by encouraging regional development, economic growth and attracting traders from other local towns.
Working within the Matriarchal system present in the Market Culture of Ghana, it is the women that must be convinced of the safer environment for trading and abandoning of more traditional roadside stalls. The nearby Ankamu Market is situated on a busy and precarious crossroads. Abbibah Oyemiah, the Matriarch of this particular market said that the local women would be willing to walk to the local market more than 3 kilometers down a busy main road, but it is not safe to do so with children and wares. They stressed the importance of a Fly-over, or walkway a safe distance from the road to ensure their safety and that it is the duty of the Government to look at the safety of the people. At present there are no plans for a walkway.
As if further proof was required that safety is an issue on roadside market stalls. In Yamoransa on March 8th of this month, a tragic road accident occurred, a popular location to sell kenkey by the roadside. A driver lost control on a bend whilst trying to avoid livestock, near Moree. He smashed through three roadside stalls, killing a lady and her nine month old baby immediately. The MTTU Commander in Central Region Aduhene said that, “Two people had died instantly and two more ladies and the driver had been rushed to Hospital in a critical condition”. This harrowing loss of life due to road accidents is a severe reality in Ghana with over 200 people being killed in the months of January and February alone. It is clear that something needs to change to prevent the reoccurrence of this tragic event.
The development of satellite markets is a simple method of preventing more accidents, but once again it is the culture of Ghana and a traditional lifestyle that must bend to accommodate the ambitious government plans. However the infrastructure of many regional towns and villages are not up to coping with the volumes of traffic created by roadside markets so perhaps it is time to relinquish this tradition and embrace modern innovation.
- Laura White (Projects Abroad)
No comments:
Post a Comment