Three years after a deadly explosion ripped through Appiatse, a farming community in the Prestea-Huni Valley District in the Western Region, the brick and mortar that is to deliver the promises of a planned pristine village is yet to live up to expectation.
The Daily Graphic has gathered that out of the GH¢112 million raised by the Appiatse Support Fund, only GH¢60 million has been utilised.
The remaining GH¢52 million is idling in two separate accounts at GCB Bank PLC and Stanbic Bank, even though the residents continue to struggle for their basic livelihood, a stark contradiction between the available resources and the visibly slow pace of recovery on the ground.
A return to the epicentre of the January 2022 explosion that claimed 16 lives, injured hundred, and levelled an entire community revealed a tale of two realities: one of physical progress, and the other, profound emotional and socio-economic neglect.
The physical transformation is undeniable. Where rubble and ashes once laid, 124 new houses now form a neat grid.
The roads are paved, the houses are painted in uniform hues, and a solemn monument stands guard at the entrance.
But beneath the surface of the meticulously reconstructed community, the scars of a tragedy that shattered lives three years ago remain raw and unhealed.
The alleys of Appiatse are unnervingly quiet, its new market locked up, and its neatly aligned houses tell a story of a recovery that is beautiful, yet tragically incomplete, leaving a haunting quiet hanging over the reconstructed village promised to be among the world’s most ecological friendly communities.
Some of the buildings are occupied, their porches bearing signs of life but others stand abandoned, their construction still incomplete.
The central monument, inscribed with the names of the departed, and a donor board are permanent polished reminders of the national outpouring that followed the disaster.
Yet, for many of the survivors, the structures feel less like a home and more like an empty shell.
“We lost everything. Everything! And when they handed us the keys to these new houses, the rooms were empty, without even a mattress to sleep on,” lamented a community member, Ebenezer Kwekyire, who helped to steer the community through the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
His words echo a deep-seated feeling of abandonment that persists among residents.
For those whose houses are not yet complete, life has been frustrating.
They remain in the temporary shelter provided years ago, their gaze fixed on the “new site,” waiting for a promise to be fully realised.
Mr Kwekyire contends that the death toll was more than the 16 reported, explaining that those were victims from the community alone.
He added that there were other victims not from the community who had stopped to film the earlier incident before the massive blast occurred, reducing them to ashes and hence could not be identified.
At the entrance of the village, Kwesi Allahasan, who was a leader of the residents’ association at the time of the explosion, now operates a lottery kiosk, one of the few visible signs of commerce.
His story moves from the collective trauma to a collective grievance – compensation.
“Many of us still feel a strong need for compensation,” he told the Daily Graphic in a steady firm voice.
“We had our businesses destroyed, our livelihoods wiped out in an instant.
The new roof over our heads is appreciated, but it does not replace the income we lost, the assets that were vapourised,” Allahasan who used to own a provision shop before the disaster, said.
His sentiment points to a critical gap in the recovery process: the difference between rebuilding houses and rebuilding lives.
Lost livelihoods
While the infrastructure has been partly restored, the means for residents to achieve economic self-sufficiency appear to have lagged far behind.
Just a stone's throw from the newly paved streets stands another potent symbol of stalled progress: a freshly constructed market complex, its stalls and stores standing empty and locked.
Erected by a private company as part of its corporate social responsibility following the disaster, the market was intended to be a hub of commerce and a catalyst for economic revival, allowing residents to restart businesses lost in the blast.
In spite of being physically complete and handed over to local authorities for months, the doors remain shut with untapped potential.
The residents said they had made several appeals to local authorities to open the facility, but their calls had been met with baffling silence and a litany of operational excuses, leaving them to wonder why a solution meant to empower them remained perpetually out of reach.
The continued inactivity of the market compound has become a source of deep frustration and a daily reminder of unfulfilled pledges, they told the Daily Graphic.
"They built it for us, but they won't let us use it. It is like showing a hungry man food but refusing to take off the lid," Mr Kwekyire, who is the son of the late Appiatse chief, said.
For now, the community goes about its daily activities of farming, cooking, children playing on the pristine roads, with a quiet resilience.
But the quietness is deceptive; it is not of peace but that of a community still processing an unimaginable loss, their grief compounded by a sensation that the world has moved on while their struggles continue.
Stagnation
Recounting the horror of that fateful day, Mr Kwekyire’s voice tightened.
He said the memory of the blast, the chaos and the lives extinguished remained vividly etched, a painful contrast to the calm that now pervaded the village.
Three years on, Appiatse stands as a symbol of both national compassion and its limitations.
The bricks and mortar are in place, pointing to what can be achieved.
But the empty houses, the plea for mattresses and other personal effects, and the unanswered calls for compensation reveal a recovery that is only superficial.
The people of Appiatse have been given a new village. But as they walk its quiet, paved streets, many are still waiting for the tools to build a new life.
Idle funds
Meanwhile, Daily Graphic investigation has revealed a startling truth: while reconstruction has stalled, a significant portion of the funds meant for the community remains unused.
Background
A massive explosion occurred on Thursday, January 20, 2022, when a truck carrying explosives from Maxam Ghana Limited’s Iduapriem plant in Tarkwa to Chirano Gold Mines Limited, was involved in a crash, leading to the death of 13 people and the destruction of the entire Appiatse community, near Bogoso, in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality.
The government launched an endowment fund to help in the rebuilding of the community as well as the rehabilitation of persons affected by the explosion.
The Appiatse Support Fund mobilised funds from members of the public and institutions to reconstruct the Appiatse community.
The then Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, inaugurated a five-member board on February 7, that year, to help manage the fund.
Stateswoman and Executive Director of the Salt and Light Ministries, Rev. Joyce Rosalind Aryee, chaired the fund, which also had the then Managing Director of CALBank, Philip Owiredu; the then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Sulemanu Kone; the Paramount Chief of the Wassa Amenfi Traditional Area, Tetrete Okuamoah Sekyim II, and a social development research fellow at the Centre for Social Policy Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr Antoinette Adjoa Tsiboe-Darko.
The members were required "to raise sufficient funds and disburse the proceeds for the sole benefit of the people of Appiatse".
Mr Jinapor urged them to be fair, prudent and transparent in the mobilisation and utilisation of the money that would accrue to the fund.
"You have the responsibility to disburse the funds in accordance with the highest standards of transparency and integrity for the sole benefit of the people of Appiatse," he charged the fund, with a passionate appear to all Ghanaians, residents of Ghana, friends of Ghana, companies and civil society organisations to generously contribute to this endeavour.
Accepting the role given them, Rev. Aryee, on behalf of the board, assured the government that they would work diligently to deliver on their mandate.
"It is an onerous task that we have been called upon to undertake, but with God, it is possible. We ask for support from all members of the public and the media to succeed in this endeavour," she said.
Fine
As part of generating funding to support the community, the Ministry of Lands and its agency, the Minerals Commission, asked Maxam Ghana Limited to pay the $1 million fine immediately.
In two other tranches within months, the company was also required to pay an additional $5 million to bring the total fine to $6 million, which it agreed to honour.
By: Kester Aburam Korankye