Assembly must provide more car washing bays

Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale
14/03/08
THE inability of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TAMA) to ensure that car washing bays are properly sited at designated places is causing a lot of disorderliness in the Tamale metropolis.
Not only do car owners, particularly taxi drivers, wash their cars anyhow on the shoulders of the roads at any available spot where they can find water, but their reckless practices are also shortening the lifespan of the beautifully laid roads in the metropolis.
A visit to the Water Works would make any taxpayer weep as bituminous surface on the shoulders of the roads at that particular area is slowly being washed away leaving in its traits bare gravel.
The situation at Vittin, just after the African Touch Restaurant, is not different. Water running from a nearby dam is used in washing cars at a junction on the main road with careless abandon.
And because not much attention is paid to such practices, more car washing bays are springing up along the Kumbungu Road (Filling Point) area and Vittin every day and night.
Another area of concern is the springing up of wayside mechanic shops (fitters) who are also siting their shops and stalls at every available space along the well laid-out roads. They include vehicle, motorbike and bicycle repairs and vulcanising shops.
As a result of the inaction on the part of the assembly, their numbers are increasing daily to the amazement of residents, who also look on unconcerned.
Some of such awful structures are actually sited along the main road leading to the assembly’s own premises at the Agric Ridge.
There is the urgent need for the assembly to find an immediate solution to this problem, which is clearly growing out of proportion.
The most worrisome aspect of the situation is the fact that it exposes motorists and pedestrians to danger due to the manner faulty vehicles are parked and repaired on the shoulders of the roads. Additionally the spillage of oil from the engines are slowly but surely destroying the multi-billion cedi roads.
When one drives through the recently constructed industrial area roads he or she will come across an unpleasant scenario.
Barely three months after completion of work on the road, which is meant to link up motorists to the main Tamale-Kumasi road without passing through the central business area, some mechanics have begun using part of the road as garages, where they repair broken-down vehicles with the attendant spillage of oil on the road.
But for how long must this indiscipline continue while the assembly looks on unperturbed?
Another area of concern is at the Police barracks behind the Giddipass Restaurant where some mechanics and electricians have located their shops.
When one visits the place at any time of the day he or she would see cars parked on one side of the road thus obstructing traffic.
A 21-year-old student, Mary Adams, deplored the apparent lawlessness creeping into the metropolis and ‘‘appealed to the assembly to do something about this indiscipline behaviour now, instead of waiting till the last minute when things have got out of hand”.
Other people the Daily Graphic spoke to also chastised the assembly for its inability to enforce its own by-laws.