By Sebastian R. Freiku
The Asafo Market Redevelopment project, initiated by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) with GH¢1 million seed money from the Central government project, has turned in to a death trap due to neglect.
The project, which was awarded to TIESO Construction Limited in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, has been abandoned and the site turned into the breeding ground of mosquitoes.
The 80 feet dug foundation of the project has been filled with rain water, faeces and refuse, and left bare with fence the wall around it broken down by a rainstorm, thus endangering the lives of traders, passersby, and children at the market.
The Metropolitan Engineer, Ing. Alex Kwame Boateng indicated that the KMA had appointed a team to meet the consultant of the project to deliberate on the way forward.
Inj. Boateng further disclosed that the city authority was negotiating with the contractor who had expressed interest in executing the project on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.
The KMA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have not found it necessary to disinfect the place against infections and epidemics, in the face of numerous complaints by residents in the area, according to Akua Achiaa, Assembly Member for Asafo.