Officials of the MMT are scheduled to go to the area Monday, to ascertain the routes and challenges in the affected communities.
Deputy Transport Minister Ms Dzifa Attivor, who announced this when she addressed parents and guardians of pupils of Ayigbe Town, said the decision was to ensure that the children did not scale the fence around the Weija Dam.
Ms Attivor, who visited the dam site in the company of the the Chief Executive of Ga South Municipal Assembly, Mr Jerry Nii Akwei Thompson, and Ms Obuobi Darko-Opoku, aspiring parliamentary candidate for the yet-to-be created Weija Gbawe Constituency, however, expressed doubts about a six-year-girl being able to climb over the exit gate as captured in an earlier publication.
graphic.com.gh Friday, September 14, 2012, carried a report of how pupils from the Weija cluster of Schools risk their lives by, either squeezing through the metal fence wall of the dam or climbing over the wall, as a result of the absence of a footbridge over the Weija Lake, to give them access to school.
It is about 25 minutes to drive from Ayigbe Town to Weija through the Mallam-Kasoa road.
Showing a copy of the publication with a picture of a six-year-old girl climbing over one of the exit gates and other children scaling over the fence to school, Madam Attivor said that was very dangerous and needed to be brought to an end.
Madam Florence Ahotor, one of the parents thanked the government for the gesture and promised that they would ensure that that their children joined the bus rather than use the dam as a route to school.
Mr Akwei Thompson, who was highly worried about the publication, said there were reptiles in the bush where the children walk to school after scaling over the fence of the dam and wondered why some parents should allow their children to use that route.
He said a $69,406 budget for the construction of a-45 metre pedestrian (foot) steel bridge over the Weija tributary, under the Ga South Municipal Assembly Local Government Capacity Support Project Urban Development Grant 2012 work plan, was being considered.
He announced that work on this environmentally friendly steel bridge would commence before the end of the year.
Ms Obuobi Darko Opoku said lands had been acquired by the government to construct schools in the area to prevent the children from crossing over to Weija where most of the public schools are situated.
Before the Minister's visit, pupils from the Weija Cluster of Schools had appealed to the government to construct two bridges across the Weija Lake to give them access to their respective schools.
The schoolchildren, between the ages of four and 12, struggle to get to school following the closure of the only existing footbridge which facilitated their access to school.
The footbridge was closed on the orders of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing.
source: Daily Graphic
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