Features
Cleanest city a mirage until we get our planning right
About ten years ago while on a company bus travelling towards Accra from Awutu Senya, I made an observation and commented on it to a colleague sitting beside me on the bus. I observed that structures had sprung up and covered a wide area such that the Kasoa I knew, had grown into a big suburb. The discussion that ensued between me and my colleague led to the long held view that there is a serious lack of planning of our suburbs, towns and cities. In fact, there is no serious effort in ensuring that the layouts displaying demarcations set out in plans submitted to the Town and Country Planning Department for various areas by land owners are strictly enforced. The result is a haphazard development which impedes the execution of the planned layout for the area and therefore ultimately results in slums and makes supply of essential services to such places a nightmare.
There is a stretch of road that gets flooded anytime there is heavy rain for a considerable length of time. It lies between the traffic light on the main Kasoa-Accra highway going from West Hills Mall towards Accra and the traffic light at Atta Mills Link. This prevents motorists from using that stretch when there is flooding, creating a heavy traffic jam for motorists travelling from Kasoa towards Accra. After the floods have subsided, the road gets littered with all kinds of rubbish and mud and it is just ‘disgusting’ for want of a better word. The cause of this flooding is simply the filling up of the wetlands along that stretch for construction of buildings. When the run off which ordinarily should have been trapped by the wetlands cannot find any resting place, it is left with no option than to flow into the narrow drains created. These narrow drains cannot contain the volume of the run-off and so it overflows into the street causing the floods.
There is a perennial lack of resources in this country which require that budgetary support is sought each year from our foreign development partners. The President has come out with the idea of a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ and to this end, every effort must be made to ensure that wastage in the system is eliminated. It is the responsibility of government to provide utility services to residential areas through agencies like Electricity Company of Ghana and Ghana Water Company Limited. When the projected revenue falls short of the projected expenditure, the government is left with no choice than to seek additional funds, usually through borrowing. When the spread of development in terms of estate residential areas is very broad, the cost in extending these services is astronomical which increases government expenditure and will impact negatively on our economy.
Agricultural development forms an integral part of this drive to generate resources and hence availability of land becomes a key issue. However, the way land is being given out to estate developers and individuals for residential purposes is a worrying situation and must be addressed. When ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ was launched in 1972, individuals bought into the idea and started miniature farms in their backyards. Schools also initiated farming projects and the enthusiasm for farming was at its peak all across the country. There was a bumper harvest across the country. Bumper harvest translates into extra revenue for the country and if there is value addition through processing, the revenue gets much bigger.
It is estimated that the country needs over 1 million housing units to satisfy the housing requirement of the nation and therefore there is some justification for the release of land for building purposes. However, there must be efficient use of available land since land is not inexhaustible. There is a population growth on the average of about three percent which means that if an efficient planning of land use is not initiated, a time would come when there will not be land available for other uses.
Land economy should be given the needed attention and one of the ways to achieve this is by putting in place a policy of maximising usage of land. When individuals acquire land and develop them, ten plots of land would have only ten flats. A high rise building on a plot of land can easily contain these ten flats leaving the remainder for other purposes. Again, the cost of supplying utility services to the individual apartments would be minimal compared to extending same to ten different apartments on different plots of land.
Modern markets like the Kaneshie Market should be the kind of market that should be established. Such markets would provide the requisite infrastructure that would enable rubbish to be appropriately handled such that the immediate surroundings of the market would be clean. Foodstuffs would also be handled well so that contamination would be reduced to the barest minimum. All these would contribute to a clean city which has a direct link to productivity.
The role of town planning officers is critical and no effort should be spared in ensuring that they are provided with the necessary resources to effectively execute their job. Effective systems should be established such that building permit acquisition becomes easier. This would provide motivation for people to get town planning involved in the putting up of structures so that buildings are not erected in waterways to create environmental problems like flooding etc. The current system for land registration is better but there is more room for improvement. The inspection role of town planning officers must be improved so that wrong siting of structures would be eliminated completely. Again, when structures are properly sited, disaster management cost would be reduced, resulting in savings that can be utilised in other sectors of the economy and the government would not have to borrow.
There must be a conscious effort to ensure that our drains are covered and the necessary studies are conducted to determine the size of drains that would be able to contain the volume of water that would flow through it without overflowing. Provision must be made for tunnels under the roads through which cables can be passed from one side of the road to the other to preserve the designed life of our roads. The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) must ensure that vehicles do not spill oil on our roads so that the life of our roads would be preserved and also prevent our streets from being dirtied.
Laud Kissi-Mensah
(The Average Citizen)
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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