The people of Vea have begun constructing a much-needed bridge on their own over a dam’s spillway in Bongo, a district in Ghana’s Upper East region.
A number of people are reported to have drowned trying to cross the spillway as successive governments continue to neglect the community since the dam was constructed in 1968— more than a half-century ago.
Decades of petitions and protests, led by the village’s chief, Naba Thomas Azubire II, who was only 17 years of age when a feasibility study of the dam project was conducted in 1965, did not produce the desired result.
The people finally took their own safety— and destiny— into their own hands this year by adventurously moving to the site of the spillway to construct the bridge after a series of tough engagements with state stakeholders.
The concrete bridge, which is still under construction, is about 192 feet long. That is the total length of six average electrical poles joined together on the ground. And it is approximately 18 feet wide, a measurement almost half the length of one of the same poles.
The Government of Ghana has no funding hand in the project. It is being executed with monies contributed by the people of the community and those sourced from sympathetic individuals.
But the main financier of the project is Real Life Ministry, an organisation based in the United States of America and headed by Pastor Micah Davidson. The ministry’s attention was drawn to the community’s plight by a native of the area, Ursula Akurugu.
“Our forefathers suffered. People have broken their legs trying to cross here. People have lost their lives trying to cross this place. People have lost their valuable items trying to cross it.
“So, if we have been able to gather the momentum to put the bridge there, that is the source of the joy that we have,” the Assembly Member of the area, Wilbert Abuula Apu-usum, told Media Without Borders at the site.
Past disappointment and focus on self-help
When former minister for roads and highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, toured the region in 2020, he stated that his government had awarded a contract to a company to construct a bridge over the spillway for the community.
The minister also made a public declaration that the contractor would move to the site very soon to start constructing the bridge. He subsequently affirmed in Parliament that the construction would begin in November, 2020, and end in November, 2021.
The people never saw any contractor in their community until the government of the minister who gave them the assurance lost power in December, 2024.
A new government is in charge today. But the people cannot wait for another promise. And they cannot expect another ghost contractor.
They currently are racing against time to complete the bridge project before the heavy rains arrive next month to overfill the dam into the spillway and cut them off again from the neighbouring communities.
The people are not only funding the bridge project with their own resources. They are also constructing the bridge themselves, but with technical support from some civil engineering consultants.
About every member of the community— young and old, men and women— is involved in the construction exercise, free of charge. Some residents of nearby Gowrie, Lungu and other areas have been to the site a number of times and voluntarily participated in the construction work for free.
Crowds are seen at the site every day except Sundays since the project started, doing everything on their own from operating construction machines to carrying concrete in headpans, fetching water, lifting bags of cement and bending iron rods among other activities.
How a lack of bridge is affecting Vea social life
The dam draws its water from River Ayarigatanga but its water level usually rises in the rainy season from late-April to mid-October, overflowing into the spillway.
The spillway lies across the main road that connects the community to nearby areas like Gowrie and Balungu.
From July to January, every year, the water cuts off Vea completely from many places and many amenities, leaving the people with no option but to rely on canoes to cross at a fee.
At times, crossing the spillway’s excess water on a canoe also comes at a cost. Residents say the canoes do capsize and when such incidents happen, even if no one dies or sustains any injuries, goods like sugar, salt, garri, powdered pepper and ground spices get completely dissolved in the water.
The community once provided a free canoe to transport teachers and healthcare workers who were stationed in the area. The canoe got damaged at some stage and the development reportedly resulted in some teachers reporting to work late, absenting themselves from work and rejecting posting to the community.
A resident said some individuals living outside the community once reconsidered their decisions to marry in Vea because of the difficulties they would face for six long months every year when crossing the spillway floodwaters to see their in-laws.
The situation is also affecting the prices at which things are sold in the community. Traders pay the commercial canoe operators to be transported across the water with their goods into the community.
Generally, there would be no need for the traders to pay that extra fare if there was a walkway or a bridge over the spillway. To make up for the extra fares they pay the canoe operators, they increase the prices of their goods, leaving the buyer to suffer the main part of the cost.
The burden is weightier on sick people who must cross the water on referral to health facilities outside the community. Schoolchildren and non-resident healthcare officials assigned to carry out a vaccination or an immunisation exercise in the community suffer alike on the spillway.
Fund-raising gathering and appeal
The bridge project is far from completed. So far, the community has not cast all eighteen box culverts needed for the construction.
They still need to erect a retaining wall around the bridge to protect the culverts against exposure to erosion. And they have yet to cast a deck over the box culverts to allow vehicles and pedestrians to cross and provide metal railings to ensure the safety of its users.
The assembly member said the community wished to complete the bridge before the rainfall season peaked but needed more funds to cover the expenses left.
He told the author of this report that the community would hold an event on Saturday, 7 June 2025, to raise funds for the completion of the project. He also appealed to members of the general public to help the community complete the bridge with any amount of money or any material they could offer.
“We would appeal to the general public, anybody who can come to our assistance, be it material or financial. We would appreciate it so much. This is a project that is very dear not to the people of Vea alone but all the surrounding communities.
“Well-meaning Ghanaians, we appeal to anybody who can support us to do so, so that we can be free from the usual bondage that we have suffered yearly for 60 years,” said the assembly member.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
