Motorists and travelers plying the Scarp located between Jamasi and Ninting in the Ashanti region popularly known as the Mampong Scarp, are faced with danger as portions of the scarp has been experiencing mass movement or mass wasting.
Mass movement is the occasional falling of rocks or topsoil of the hill onto the base of the highland sometimes directly on to the single-lane road.
A close monitoring and observation of the situation by Radio Ghana’s Correspondent, Nicholas Osei-Wusu, has revealed that the phenomenon is very common and serious during the rainy season during.
There are however, minor incidences of the falling of the rocks and earth surface during the dry season.
During the mass movement, trees also fall indiscriminately particularly when the topsoil that holds them lose and fall unto the base sometimes completely blocking the road to traffic from both ends.
It has also been confirmed that, even though the Jamasi-Boanim-Mprim route provides an alternative for motorists, the road through the Scarp remains the shortest and original route for commuters from and to Asante Mampong and Kumasi while providing the motorists and passengers a scenic aerial view of the Scarp.
Drivers and commuters interview expressed serious concern about the phenomenon, which they say has become a real danger to them. They have therefore appealed to the Ghana Highways Authority, GHA, to act swiftly to avert any catastrophe.
An expert in Geomorphology and Environmental Geography, Dr. Aboagye DaCosta, who is also a Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, explained that mass movement or mass wasting is triggered by many factors with rainfall, human and biological activities being the major causes.
Among these factors also is method of construction used by the contractors during the construction of the road such as dynamite blasting of the rocky areas.
Touching on the solutions, Dr. Aboagye DaCosta recommended the covering of the stretch of the scarp experiencing the phenomenon with wire merch or the construction of concrete retaining wall at the base of rocky hill along the road behind which the objectives would fall without causing danger to users of the road.
When contacted, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Highways Authority, the supervising agency of the road, Ingineer Christian Nti, confirmed the occurrence of the mass movement phenomenon.
He said as a short term safety measure, people from Jamasi and Ninting which are the nearby communities, must stop undertaking any economic activity including farming and lumbering within the scarp since their activities are contributing to the problem.
The Highways Regional Director said community awareness creation outreach would be organized in the concerned towns to enable the people better appreciate the impact of their activities on the road and safety of the users.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Highways Authority has commended an NGO, Save the Scarp Souls, for planting bamboo along a stretch of the single-lane winding slope of the scarp to serve as an effective road crash barrier against vehicles veering into the deep ditch on the scarp.
Bamboos, the Regional Director, Christian Nti, admitted [provides better alternative to the metal railings serving as the crash barrier along the road.
He therefore assured that his outfit would consider extending planting of the bamboo to cover the entire stretch of the road within the scarp s an additional protection for motorists.
