The bridge is being inundated by the rising Volta River due to the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams, which began on September 15, and there were concerns over the safety of Ghana’s longest bridge.

The Roads Minister, who was in the company of other top executives at the Ministry, said the bridge, commissioned in 1967, had enjoyed optimal maintenance over the years.

“This is the longest bridge over water in our country and the government will not allow anything to happen to the bridge. The government is working collaboratively with all key stakeholders to address the issue. The government is on top of the issues and the President is very particular on this issue,” he said.

The Minister noted frequent visits and inspections of the bridge by engineers and spoke of plans to rehabilitate the structure.

“This bridge is part of our program even before the advent of this disaster. The major activity on the bridge is to change all 18 expansion joints and we have entered an agreement with MC company based in Tema. We signed an MoU with them about three months ago. Work will start very soon,” he added.

Mr. Amoako Atta said the Ministry was working closely with the VRA.

He noted that the water levels were safe, adding that aquatic weeds and other material affecting the flow of water were being taken care of.

Mr. Amoako Atta commended various stakeholders, including the leadership of the Canoe Fishermen Association for their support.

The Minister gave the assurance that roads affected by the flooding would be fixed.

“At the end of this problem, the government will take a general look at all the roads affected. I want to assure the people on behalf of the government that at the end of this my ministry and its stakeholders will ensure the roads are fixed.”

More than 3,000 people have been affected by the flood in Central Tongu, and over 4,000 displaced in North Tongu.

The safe haven at St. Kizito Senior High School at Mepe in the North Tongu District holds the largest number of victims—more than 1,000—and the VRA, NADMO, and the various security services are on hand to provide the needed relief and support.

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He has bemoaned the level of bribery and corruption within his own and other ministries, as a result of which trans-border haulage drivers from Burkina Faso and Code d’Ivoire enter Ghana’s territory with overloaded trucks of goods and evade scrutiny at axle load points.

Mr Amoako-Attah said the culprits, who are chasing after cash to line their pockets to the detriment of Ghana’s road infrastructure, would all die and leave the lot behind.

He expressed pain at how corrupt officials are making the country pay a huge cost for their selfish gain.

“All of us and our government, are spending millions and billions of money to fix our roads. We get transporters from other neighbouring countries; coming to pick up cargo from your ports, and they don’t respect our axle load regime.

“See all these vehicles here and they park for hours on end”, he complained to journalists after inspecting works on the ongoing VALCO Roundabout-Kpone road reconstruction project.

“My information is that some of them are now going through the documentation process at the port, so, they park on the shoulders of the roads for more than 24 hours”.

“They have destroyed the shoulders of our roads and when they come to the roads themselves, because of the unauthorised axle load that they carry, the roads that we spend our hard-earned monies to build, they destroy them”, an angry Amoako-Attah observed.

He added: “And my information is that they cannot do the same in their countries – the French-speaking countries – Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, and so on. When they get to Paga, they offload part of their cargo before they enter those countries, but in our country, we have axle load centres; the road from the port, there’s supposed to be an axle load center there; we have barriers on our roads, we have some of the customs people manning some of our barriers; the police are manning our barriers, but they have free access through our corridor”.

“What are we doing to our country because of bribery and corruption? And we are the same people who call on the president, who call on the government, to fix the country”, he fumed.

He revealed: “There are a lot of corrupt people, there are a lot of thieves in my ministry. You sack them, you employ new ones, and when they come, the new ones are even worse than the old ones that you sacked. What kind of country are we building for ourselves?”.

He philosophised: “I don’t know what people want. We will die and leave everything behind. All of us; those who came before us are all gone. We heard the big names, people with money and wealth, where are they? Look at what we are seeing and we are citizens of this country?”.

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Though he will not give details of roads to see an upgrade, the Minister says Kwabre East and West areas will see contractors mobilise to the site in less than a month.

Residents of Kwabre East have on several occasions hit the streets to protest the poor state of road networks in the area.

They include the Antoa road linking Sakora Wonoo, the hometown of the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie alias Sir John, a former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party.

Others are the Kenyasi-Adwumam-Fawode, the Aboaso-Mpobi-Wawase roads, Maase-Aduman-Buoho road and Afrancho-Ntiribuoho stretch.

Mr Amoako Atta says a major contractor working on deplorable roads in both Keabre East and West will soon mobilise to the site.

The sector minister made the remarks at a sod-cutting ceremony for the Suame Interchange project.

Similar projects, according to him, would soon be done in the Manso area.

Present at the event was the Member of Parliament for Kwabre East, Francisca Oteng.