The Road gone Wild

Development - we usually think schools, hospitals, microcredit, agriculture, etc. Here is one that often slips the mind and one I did not think of before coming to Ghana – roads. In the Western world, we see problems with roads as potholes, lack of guard-rails, or those yellow painted lines. In the developing world, problems include huge, impassable gaps; rivers overflowing and washing out bridges, and vehicles getting stuck for days.
So currently, it is rainy season in Northern Ghana. There are daily downpours of rain and floods are very common. The two roads connecting our town to the main city has become cut-off except for the truly adventurous types. Road A is completely washed out by water and a vehicle cannot pass through it. The only opportunity there is to take a motorcycle on a pretty dangerous canoe. Once you cross the river and empty all the water in the canoe, you take the motorcycle and continue. In fact, the man who built the rickety canoe has made a pretty good business out of it, now charging customers. Road B has the river running over the road but it can be crossed by lorries (oversized vans fitting over 20 people). The process is the lorry is emptied, the people roll up their pants, take off their shoes and wade across the river. Then they watch and hope that the lorry does not get stuck! One morning our lorry got stuck so there we were pushing from every direction for a couple of hours trying to get it unstuck. Now I have to admit, I was pretty useless in the whole operation. I was trying to push but mostly I was just not get washed away by the river. And in those moments, the most difficult ones, I again was able to see the best of human beings. Women with babies at their back pushing with no complaints. Men going under water and trying to lift the tires with serious risk of getting crushed or toppled. Children carry others’ luggage probably weighing more than themselves on their head to ensure that it does not get wet. After an hour, and tons of attempts, the car was able to get unstuck and moved.
Since then, a truck was stuck for over 4 days making it completely impassable for anybody. It again took a communal effort, but this time by hundreds from the town to remove it (pictures are attached). The impact of the roads problem cannot be understated. A journey to the city which usually takes 2-3 hours now, if possible, takes 6-7 hours. Few drivers even agree to take the risk of going to and the town with their car and many are often left stranded in the city, wanting to come back but with no means. An incredible amount of business is lost; as one prominent member of the community put it – “all economic activity comes to a standstill”. People who depend on selling or obtaining products from the city (and that is big majority) are helpless. There are no financial service institutions in our town so many are forced into a habit of saving the little they have until they are able a trip to the city. Good health services are all in the city so who knows the impact on actual well-being of people. And here is the most amazing part of the whole story – this has been a problem for numerous years now. Every year, there is a promise by the government to fix the road and there is no action until it is too late. No accountability and no action.
This is a problem that cities, towns and countries face all over the world but it just feels more magnified here. Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton talked about it a lot in their recent trips to Africa – good governance. But I think we often hear good governance and hear only lack of leadership. Good governance everywhere, I believe, is as much a responsibility of the communities as it is of the government. There needs to be more community organization, grass-roots movements, and interactions with the government. It is going to be hard and take sacrifice. It may take people becoming unpopular, going against the norm, maybe even risking their lives. But alas, if we want to achieve something worthwhile in this lifetime, there is always going to be a risk and sacrifice.