About 3,400 peasant farmers from seven farming communities in the Bole District of the Savannah Region have expressed fear of losing their farm products to deplorable roads following continue heavy downpour in the Bole District.
The affected communities are Kalidu, Dakrupe, Kiblimah, Tuntuma, Bonbir, Cloth and Kontori.
Many of the culverts and bridges at the Kiblimah, Kalidu and Dakrupe roads are always washed away and left with deep potholes in the middle of the roads.
A female peasant farmer in Dakrupe, Salamatu Iddrisu, speaking to JoyNews, said harvesting was good last year, but she is afraid of losing her four-acre Groundnuts and maize farms this year.
“This is the time am supposed to start harvesting, but after the rain, the roads are terrible, and the motor king that carries our goods home cannot pass here again. How can we suffer and just for one rain to destroy all,” she bemoaned.
Confirming the situation on the ground to JoyNews, the Bole District director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Kipo Sulemana, said all roads from Seripe to Dakrupe are near total cut off.
“The roads if totally cut off, residents of Dakrupe, Kiblimah, Kalidu, Tuntumba, Cloth, Kontori and Bonbir all in the Sonyo Traditional Area of the Bole District would be denied access to health care to the Bole hospital.”
He noted that farm produces from the communities listed above would be locked up; market women would also not buy and sell in the Bole market from the affected communities.
According to him, he had appealed to the Regional office and the Bole District Assembly to find immediate steps in fixing the road as a matter of urgency.
“I’ve also sent caution that if immediate steps are not taken between now to the first week of October, all the roads listed would have been totally cut off and close to an estimated population of 3,400 residents would have been affected.”
When contacted, the Savannah Regional NADMOA Director, Mohammed Tohir, confirmed knowledge of the situation in Bole, adding that the situation will be attended to.
“Yes, I was briefed by the district officer, and we are currently working out things to salvage the situation,” he said.
