Clearing for rebuilding at Appiatse has begun to restore settlements and living in the town after it was totally ruined by a deadly explosion which claimed about 50 lives.
Bulldozers and other earthmoving machines have started demolishing damaged buildings and property and clearing debris at Appiatse to pave way for the reconstruction of the city.
The exercise, which began exactly a week after a deadly disaster hit the community, is to make way for officials of the State Housing Company (SHC) and the municipal assembly to start taking a closer look at the field to guide them in planning and demarcation ahead of the reconstruction.
Prior to the demolition, the SHC carried out an assessment of the damage to residential structures after the deadly explosion at Appiatse, a small community near Bogoso in the Western Region.
The assessment provided the company with adequate information to plan the rebuilding exercise, which the government has instructed it to carry out.
The exercise saw that buildings that had their roofs ripped off in the blast but whose structures were still standing were pulled down and the foundations excavated.
The clearing exercise started from the main entrance of the community from the Bogoso direction.
The debris was initially heaped before pay-loaders tipped it into trucks.
Before the exercise, some community members, who could identify the exact locations of their homes, trooped into the village at dawn to salvage some belongings.
As of noon, the team realised that almost half of the community had been cleared in the exercise which started early in the morning.
While the demolition and field clearing was progressing last Thursday, the members of the Steering Committee of the Appiatse Support Fund, who were at the Jubilee House in Accra to introduce themselves to the President, gave the assurance that the country would take advantage of the disaster at Appiatse to rebuild it into a green city.
“This is an opportunity for us to do a green city, making sure that we use renewable resources to build the city and get the people to understand that things have changed so much and the world is also suffering from our misuse of the world’s natural resources,” the Chairperson of the committee, Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee, assured President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Source: graphic.com.gh
