After evading a scheduled interview with Metro News, the Municipal Chief Executive for the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly has finally availed himself to respond to a barrage of questions regarding the state of the footbridge in the Mmofrafadwen community leading to Rocky Ranky Basic School.

After several attempts to track him down, the Community Watch team headed by Gabriel Nii Obodai Torgbor Ashong visited the site which still has the dangerous bridge used by lower primary pupils and those even in kindergarten.

Mr. Isaac Kwadjo Buabeng pledged the assembly will attend to the plight of the Mmofrafadwen community, particularly schoolchildren who use the bridge with the provision of a temporal structure to aid them access school to study.

He said the assembly is perturbed with the dilapidated condition of the footbridge endangering the lives of school children and the community at large.

“After the assessment, we have to put up a temporal structure for the children as well as the community as a walkway before later we do the main construction.”

“We are going to do dredging or desilting. When you look at the steam it’s silted up we have to make the water flow. We’re going to do the dredging or desilting after we do the main construction. Looking at the plight of children we are going to do something as early as possible for them to walk on to school,” the Nsawam-Adoagyiri MCE told Metro News in an interview.

Over 80 pupils risk drowning for crossing a dilapidated bridge to school each day.

The deplorable state of the bridge fits the description of a disaster waiting to happen.

Residents, teachers, and schoolchildren have registered their displeasure with authorities for overlooking the situation and failure to provide amicable solutions.

The engineer at the assembly, Mr. Alex Asiedu Doudu, assured the residents a temporal walkway would be provided for them within a week to pave way for the reconstruction of the collapsed bridge by the end of 2021.

He said the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipal Assembly was conscious to undertake measures to improve access to education, therefore, would reconstruct a structure for the Mmofrafadwen community to access school.

He also reiterated that the municipality as part of the reconstruction will dredge the stream to ensure no flooding of the bridge when there’s a heavy pour.

“Upon our inspection, we have realized that we have to look at it in phases. Thus, to provide them with a temporal structure more or less a walkway with guide rails and handrails and other users,” he said.