The construction of a bridge over the Oti River in Saboba District is more than an engineering feat but a major gateway to connect people economically, improve healthcare access, and continual schooling for thousands of residents within the district and across the river.
For decades, the Oti River, fed by the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso, has been both a blessing and a burden for the people of Saboba District. Each rainy season, the river overflows its banks, destroying farm produce and cutting off communities from vital services such as farming, markets, health and schools.
In the first quarter of 2025, a student nurse got drowned when a canoe capsized while attempting to cross the river. A few years earlier, seven school children lost their lives whilst trying to cross the river from a farm. These incidents remain painful reminders of the dangers residents have been facing in their daily struggle for access to economic and agricultural activities and other social amenities
Today however, hope is rising across Saboba as the government, through the Member of Parliament and Minister for Transport, Joseph Bukari Nikpe, has commenced construction of a permanent bridge across the Oti River. The project is expected to transform lives, ensuring safe passage, boosting trade, and reconnecting communities long divided by the river’s wrath.
Some residents reflect the relief and see the development as a life saver and an opened door to agricultural and economic growth. Speaking in an interview, a farmer and businessman, Gawu Npuankpe, expressed his happiness and satisfaction on the development saying that it is going to ease transportation of farm produce to Saboba market.
“We have lost countless harvests to the floods. This bridge means our crops will finally reach the market without fear and business would boom subsequently,”he said.
For health wise, the bridge is set to reduce the number of mortality cases recorded in the district and facilitate quick access to the hospital, especially people at the east side of the river. A Surgical specialist and former Medical Superintendent of Saboba Medical centre, now Assemblies of God Hospital, Dr Jean Anne Young, has expressed her joy acknowledging the essence of the undergoing construction bridge as a quicker and safe way patients can be transported to Saboba health centres due to the difficulties in accessing curative medical care in northern Togo even though Baptist have a new hospital at Mango.
“Many Konkombas and members of other tribes living due east of Saboba prefer to come to Saboba for their health care, so I am certain that when the bridge is constructed, patients with typhoid and other intestinal complaints, children with anaemia and women in preeclampsia and eclampsia complications can reach the Saboba Hospital on time,” she stated.
Residents to the east of river Oti in most cases delay when their people do not feel well, especially those of children and pregnant women due to the fear of crossing the river and there are number deaths incidents that occur as a result of canoe capsizing whilst crossing the river. This brings pressure on the health workers at Saboba health centres, especially the Assemblies of God Hospital when the case becomes more complicated at home before the patient is brought to the hospital.
Dr Jean Anne Young, who is also a former adjunct professor in school of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, USA, a Fellow at the West African College of Surgeons and a Founding Fellow Surgical Section, Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, recounts instances where patients brought to the Saboba Hospital are in critical conditions, where in cases of pregnant women they lost the babies to save their mothers.
“We have witnessed several Togolese women with prolonged obstructed labour which has necessitated a caesarian section where infants do not survive in most cases whilst their mothers’ lives are saved. If the bridge is completed, we see large numbers of pregnant ladies access antennal care here at Saboba, making referral for blood transfusions and other medications simple,”she emphasised.
Whilst easing transportation challenges for the residents of Saboba, the bridge on the other hand would increase the burden on social amenities including the health facilities. More facilities and health workers are, therefore, needed in order to meet the needs of the patients that would visit the hospital. Dr Jean as a result appeals to the stakeholders, the government and philanthropist to come to the aid of the hospital so that the number of people that would access the hospital as a result of the bridge wouldn’t be a problem as far as facilities, health staff and medications are concerned.
“Due to the bridge, the hospital may experience more patients which undoubtedly mean more facilities, health staff, medications and other medical supplies would be needed. One other hazard likely to increase with the coming of the bridge is the number of road traffic accidents due to how local tricycle and motorcycle riders driving carelessly. We are calling on stakeholders, government and other NGOs to support us with the above needs,”she stressed.
The bridge is not just one of government projects in the district; it is a lifeline. For some residents, they are very grateful to the government and the MP for the district for thinking about Saboba, they anxiously anticipate full completion of the project as it marks the end of tragedy and the beginning of transformation in the district.
The writer is a journalist resident at Saboba.
BY ABRAHAM NAKPANA
Follow Ghanaian Times WhatsApp Channel today. https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
Trusted News. Real Stories. Anytime, Anywhere.
Join our WhatsApp Channel now! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
