News
Blue Cresent residents raise concerns about flood, bad roads
Some floods in the area
Residents of Blue Cresent in the Katamanso Municipality of the Greater Accra Region have raised concerns about the effects of contin¬uous rainfall in the area which causes flooding on their roads.
Roads according to residents, are usually covered in water, making it difficult for vehicles to ply the roads.
That, they complained, had affected livelihoods as residents were unable to access transportation to carry out their daily activities within and outside the community.
Consequently, drivers had taken advantage of the situation to increase transport fares since they had to deal with the impact of the flooding on their vehicles.
In an interview with The Spectator, a motorist, Mr Kelvin Tamakloe, lament¬ed “it is difficult to ply the roads, and commercial drivers are affected by the flood. We find it difficult to use some roads due to potholes covered by the flood.”
He went on to highlight the damages these floods had caused their motor¬cycles adding that commercial riders spent their profit repairing damages on their motorcycles which consequently resulted in the increase in fares.
Thieves, he said, also took the op¬portunity to snatch bikes from riders due to the slow movements caused by the bad nature of the roads.
“Some drivers close very early to avoid being attacked at night, living commuters to their fate,” he stated.
“Transportation issues here are troubling and causing we commercial drivers a lot of hardship. We we spend so much repairing our vehicles than we save,” Mr Benjamin Kofi, a commercial driver said.
According to him, most of his col¬league drivers stopped loading to the community because of the bad nature of the road and concentrated on work¬ing in other communities.
A resident, Madam Diana Kaba said businesses were being affected by this situation since finding a vehicle to move around had become a problem.
“Uber and Bolt drivers do not accept any ride to the community because of the fear of damaging their vehicles. Movements of those who accept addi¬tional charges, most times our move¬ments are restricted especially when there is a torrent,” she said.
“We also have to depend on com¬mercial Kia drivers or private cars to convey us to our destinations when we sometimes stay out late, because most commercial drivers would not work when it is past 7 pm, and we have also lost trust in “okada” drivers because most of them have taken advantage of the situation to steal from us. They drop you somewhere quiet and rob you of your belongings,”she stressed.
With the benevolence of some mem¬bers of the community, some of the potholes had been partially fixed with a spread of sand and stones to improve the road conditions temporarily.
The Assemblyman for the area, Mr Samuel Abbrey, had not been left out of the frustrations as he said, “ I have my two cars at the fitting shop be¬cause of the bad nature of the road, it is something I am so much aware of which also affects me but it is beyond my control, I have spoken to the au¬thorities but all to no avail.”
According to the Assembly member, the government had turned deaf ears to their plights after several petitions and demonstrations.
Mr Abbrey said “if I say there is hope, I will be misleading you because there is no sign of hope, what I am seeing now is that, the government is trying to punish the whole of the Katamanso municipality. It is the central govern¬ment that is supposed to work on the road but there is no sign that the road will be fixed,” he stated.
Francisca Kaba
Ghana Institute of Journalism
Hundreds of street children received a special treat during the Christmas festivities as a result of a collaboration between the management of the La Beach Hotel and the Street Academy in Accra.
It was part of the Hotel’s current arrangement to provide lunch for the children of the Academy every Friday.
Courtesy that partnership, management of the La Beach Hotel feted hundreds of street children housed by the Street Academy, creating a partying moment for the children.
According to officials of the Hotel, the gesture was to let the children feel part of the festivities and not left out.
The children enjoyed delicious meals and snack after which they danced as they enjoyed the moment.
According to the Hotel officials, “the season represents one that every parent gathers their children and shower them with gifts and others to make them happy but sadly, these unfortunate children are left on their own, having no one to care for them.”
“This is an event we intend to make an annual one. Through this, we hope to put some smiles on their faces. It is not proper to leave them on their own.”
The Executive Director of the Academy, Ataa Lartey, expressed gratitude to the management of the hotel, saying that, “this has gone a long way to excite the children and make them feel part of the celebration.”
He said due to the number of children that join around this time of the year, it becomes difficult for the Academy alone to shoulder this responsibility.
“It is not easy to organise such activities alone because it draws a lot of children, that is, those in the Academy and their friends that follow them but with such cooperate supports, we are able to bring them together to share in moments like this,” he told The Spectator.
By Spectator Reporter
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A 30-year-old surrogate mother has delivered a set of quadruplets at The Walking Egg Medical and Fertility Centre at Pokuase in Accra, in a rare surrogacy success that has brought renewed attention to assisted reproductive care in Ghana.
The babies-two boys and two girls- were delivered through a caesarean section in the early hours of Tuesday at 36 weeks and weighed an average 2.5 kilograms each, a weight doctors say was healthy for a multiple pregnancy.
IUI stands for Intrauterine Insemination, a common fertility treatment where healthy sperm are collected, ‘washed’ and concentrated in a lab, and then directly inserted into a woman’s uterus around ovulation using a thin catheter to help sperm reach the egg for fertilisation, often used for unexplained infertility, cervical issues, or mild male factor infertility, and is less invasive than IVF.
Speaking to The Spectator after the surgery, the Medical Director of the Centre, Dr Nana Yaw Osei, said the pregnancy was achieved through Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and was not planned to result in multiple births.
“With IUI, you introduce prepared sperm into the uterus and have no control over how many eggs fertilized.”
“Unlike IVF, where embryos are formed outside the body and the number transferred can be controlled, this outcome was left entirely to nature,” Dr Osei explained.
He said unlike IVF which could result in multiple babies, this is “possibly the first IUI leading to quadruplets in Ghana.”
He revealed that the surrogacy arrangement was necessary because the intended mother had lost her uterus during surgery to remove fibroids, making it medically impossible for her to carry a pregnancy.
“She had no womb of her own, through no fault of hers,” Dr Osei said, adding that “Surrogacy was the only option available for her to have a biological child.”
When scans later showed that the surrogate was carrying four fetuses, the medical team considered fetal reduction, a procedure sometimes used to reduce risks in multiple pregnancies. However, the option was rejected.
“As a strong Christian, fetal reduction is abortion to me,” Dr Osei said. “After discussions with the intended parents and the surrogate, we all agreed to continue with the pregnancy.”
Despite concerns commonly associated with multiple pregnancies, Dr Osei noted that the surrogate experienced no major complications, and the delivery was smooth. Paediatric assessments conducted after birth confirmed that all four babies are healthy.
Dr Osei again indicated that surrogacy, though still widely misunderstood, is recognised under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 2020 (Act 1027).
He urged the public to engage the subject with greater understanding.
“Surrogacy is not about convenience,” he said. “It is about restoring hope to people who have lost the ability to carry a child.”
Describing the moment of delivery, he added, “I was in tears in the theatre. It reminded me why I chose this profession.”
By Esinam Jemima Kuatsinu
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