Weeds Take Over Site For Shama District Hospital A Year After President Cut Sod

A year after President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of a district hospital at Shama in the Western Region, not a single block has been laid for the project.

Rather, weeds have taken over with no sign of the commencement of work anywhere in sight.

The situation has led to the chiefs and people of the area expressing disappointment and wondering if President Akufo-Addo’s sod-cutting ceremony held in 2020 was not just an election campaign gimmick.

“Till date, nothing, absolutely nothing has been done. We don’t want to believe that because it was campaign season that is why the President rushed to cut the sod for us. People of Shama are sad, we are disappointed, we don’t know what the government is doing for us, “laments Nana Akosua Gyamfuaba ll.

But the Shama District Engineer, Dr. Eric Cobbinah, has been heard in television reports explaining that the reason for the delay is that a new site for the project has been secured.

According to him, in the past year, feasibility studies have been going on and that there is the intention to also engage the people of the area over the project.

“The feasibility study is ongoing. Originally, the hospital construction should have been at the old site but we thought it wise that we have to get a new site for the new project. So the whole concept was changed to a new site and for the new site we have to go through the process and engage the community and some kind of test has to also be undertaken. So since one year when the president came to do the sod cutting, this process is ongoing,” he said.

While the excuses are going on, the original site for the hospital project has been taken over by weeds.

For many people in the area, what is even more shocking is that the government is now promising to build 88 new hospitals and rehabilitate13 others within one year.

On August 19, 2020, president Nana Akufo-Addo today cut the sod for the construction of a 100-bed two-storey Shama District Hospital in the Western Region.

The €32 million project, which is being funded by Standard Chartered Bank with credit guarantee support from Sinosure China was to be executed by Poly Changda Oversees Engineering Company Limited.

Addressing dignitaries at the project site, President Akufo-Addo had announced that funds for the execution of the project had been secured, and therefore the project would not suffer any bottlenecks during the period of execution.

He had described Poly Changda Oversees Engineering Company Limited, contractors of the project, as experienced professionals whose works are dotted in China and other parts of Africa and are leaders in hospital infrastructure construction.

The President had then used the sod-cutting ceremony to urge the people in the area to give him another term during the forthcoming general election to enable him to continue the projects his government had started. The President had also appealed to the people to vote for the parliamentary candidate of the party in the general elections.