PRUNE BRANCHES OF TREES ALONG STREETS (PAGE 29)

The Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan assembly is yet to prune the dead and overgrown branches of trees planted along the major roads and compounds of various public places in the twin-city.
This is several months after the Daily Graphic had drawn the attention of the metropolitan authorities to the danger they posed to residents.
The streets along which some of the overgrown branches of trees can be found are the Enyansia-Essikado and the Sekondi-Takoradi roads.
The danger is that if these dead and overgrown branches are not prunned they could cause a major accident.
It appears no particular service provider or authority wants to take the responsibility of pruning the branches.
At present the dry branches of these trees, which were planted with the well intended purpose of greening the environment, have turned out to be a danger to residents.
Because some of the trees were planted over 50 years ago, some of the branches of these trees have withered and keep falling on the roofs of vehicles and on the streets, creating a lot of inconvenience to the motoring public.
Even though workers of the sanitation management company, Zoomlion, clear the debris each and every day they still pose a danger to people.
Recently, however, one of the trees on the compound of the Star of the Sea Catholic Church, near the Paa Grant roundabout in Takoradi, was uprooted during a slight windstorm.
It took days for the debris to be cleared. Interestingly there are schools around the place with a designated Zebra-Crossing that is right under the trees.
The trees on this compound provide shade to people who visit the premises of the church for their spiritual upliftment.
Exactly where the tree fell, the branches of other trees have overgrown and entangled their branches with the electricity cables and poles along the road.
Should a cable snap during a rainstorm, there is a high probability that power could transmit through them,with dire consequences for human lives.
Trees around the Railways Quarters and other parts of the metropolis also have their branches resting on the exposed electric cables.
It is the hope of this reporter that the relevant institutions would act promptly to prune the branches before the unexpected happens.