Release Funds to Complete Stalled Volta Regional Library Project - Government Urged

By Alberto Mario Noretti

Ho — The structures of the stalled Volta Regional Library project which commenced in Ho in 2003 are now waning, with 85 per cent of the job executed.

The GET Fund project was scheduled to be completed in 2005; however, the 200-capacity ultra-modern library came to a standstill in 2014 due to lack of funds.

It was reactivated in 2016 but stalled again in 2017, with an estimated amount of GH¢ 4,341,760 required to complete the project designed to include adult and children's reading departments, an ICT centre, a stack room, a mega-conference centre and an archives among several other units.

The payment of an amount of GH¢ 408 060.50 in respect of work carried out by the contractor, Messrs Tallman House Limited is still pending.

Presently, an old basic school home science centre at Ho-Kpoanyigba with only 24 seats is being used as the Volta Regional library.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times Mr Guy E. Amartefio, Volta Regional Librarian said the facility being used currently was just woefully inadequate for a municipality like Ho.

Apart from that, he said the interim library was located beside a community toilet, with the emanating stench filling the reading room and repelling members of the public.

"So, the interim library is empty most of the time", Mr Amartefio.

He has, therefore, appealed to the government to take urgent steps to ensure the completion of the project.

"The Volta Region is the only region in the country without a regional library", Mr Amartefio lamented.

He said that the Ghana Library Authority had laudable plans to encourage reading among young people in the region but the absence of a decent library was thwarting efforts to implement those plans.

Worse, he said that the stockpile of books at the interim library was at the mercy of the weather as the rains could fill the room whose roofs were all leaky.

However, there seem to be a silver lining in the cloud.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, when contacted yesterday by this reporter, gave the assurance that "government is set to pay the GETFund to enable it to pay the contractor to complete the project."

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