Has The Time Not Come For Ghana's Politicians To Commit To Building Only Plastic Roads?

Travelling on the very bad countryside  road that goes from Kyekyewre, through  Thompsonakura to Domiabra and beyond on Monday - a pretty bad road made worse by sand-carrying tipper trucks that now regularly ply it - I could not help but recall the recent clash over roads between some of the leading lights of the NDC/NPP duopoly.

It occurred to me - as we waited in the bushy verge of what is a rather narrow road, for a heavily-laden tipper truck carrying sand to pass - that perhaps this would be the perfect time to point out to all the candidates contesting December's presidential election, and the political parties that they lead, that going forward into the future,  Ghana can climate-change-proof all new roads added to the nation's road network, at very little extra cost to taxpayers.

It so happens that a simple and inexpensive technology exists - mixing melted plastic waste with bitumen - that can enable Ghana to  actually construct roads that will remain pothole-free throughout their lifespan. Would that not redound to the benefit of all Ghanaians?

Additionaly, what are known as plastic roads, last three times as long as conventional roads, and bear heavier loads on top of that too. And because plastic is impermeable to water, they are never washed away by flash floods - perfect for a time when extreme weather resulting from global warming now leads to frequent flash floods that destroy miles of sections of Ghana's road network across the country.

One would thus appeal to the leaderships of all Ghana's political parties to commit their parties to implementing a policy of making it mandatory for all roads constructed in Ghana to be plastic roads  (should they win power in this December's polls)  - and that henceforth only road contractors whose employees have been trained in applying plastic road technology will be given contracts to build roads in Ghana.

The Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) could liaise with their Indian colleagues to bring what is a simple technology to Ghana. Or alternatively, Tata's subsidiary, Jusco, could partner the BRRI to train road contractors in Ghana to adopt the technology.

Yet another simple road construction  idea: Although it has probably never occurred to him before, if all the political parties in Ghana approached Alinko Dangote, the billionaire  Nigerian serial entrepreneur, and put a public private partnership (PPP) idea to him,  to build, operate and transfer to Ghana (after 35 years) concrete motorways from Accra linking all the regional capitals in Ghana, he might take them up on it.

Collecting cash daily from the drivers of vehicles traversing such tolled concrete motorways across Ghana and other nations in the continent, will make Alinko Dangote far wealthier, than any oil refinery he builds in his native Nigeria (or elesewhere) ever will.

In addition to concrete motorways, as stated before, Ghana also desperately needs to develop a national network of climate-change-proofed plastic roads. The question is: Will our hard-of-hearing politicians and the parties they lead be prepared to bring the era of shoddily-constructed roads - from which they earn so much in kickbacks from road contractors - to an end in Ghana?

We are literally throwing away billions of dollars putting up with bad roads in Ghana: A totally unacceptable situation that taxpayers must no longer tolerate.

The money that is currently spent constructing shoddy roads in Ghana, which develop potholes not too long after they are  completed, and which we are all forced to travel on regardless, is really akin to fetching water with baskets - and ought to be brought to an end so as to protect the public purse.

The question is: Will all the  political parties commit to a new policy of constructing only pothole-free and long-lasting plastic roads throughout Ghana, in both urban and rural areas of the nation, should their candidate emerge victorious in the presidential election this December?

One certainly hopes so - for the time has now come for all the political parties in Ghana to commit to doing so. When the era of plastic roads in our country finally comes into being, simple city-living village folk like us will also travel on good roads too, for a change, when visiting rural Ghana.