SAEMA TO ENSURE PROPER DEVELOPMENT AT ESSIPUN ..Page 25

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Essipun

The Essipun community near Sekondi is to see an increase in social infrastructure such as modern places of convenience, access roads through the town to link the town’s major roads, school blocks, among others.
As a host community for the Nations Cup, the community has developed faster than expected. To ensure that its development is in accordance with the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly’s layouts, the assembly is turning its attention to the community to ensure that development is planned to match the multi-million dollar sport facility sited in the community.
The Public Relations Officer of the assembly, Mr John Laste, told the Daily Graphic that officials of the assembly had met with the chiefs and people of the community on the issue. He said the chiefs and people of Essipun made some requests and the assembly was looking at them with the view to providing them in order of preference.
He said as an emerging community, the assembly would not sit down for people to do things anyhow and that its development needed to be well planned.
He said they would initially tackle the problem of drainage, the construction of school blocks and access roads through the town, and the relocation of the community toilet to a more acceptable area in the community.
He said with the location of the stadium, the population was likely to increase and, therefore, there was the need to collaborate with the chiefs and other stakeholders to ensure that the development of the Essipun community, like of any other community within the metropolis, followed the laid-down structures.
Mr Laste said one of the immediate problems the assembly had realised in the community, especially around the stadium was hawking, and that the assembly had allocated some space for the hawkers to do their business there, instead of on the streets.
He said the stadium might be used for other sporting activities, and stressed the need to provide certain standards to ensure that no unauthorised structures sprang up for the assembly to waste money to demolish.