Fixing Community Challenges: A Shared Responsibility

Felix Kwame Quainoo

The rains are here with us again and has quite characteristically exposed the stark reality of serious underlying community challenges and deep prevalent gaps in the developmental trajectory of most cities, towns and communities across the country.

From Bawku to Axim, most communities in the country come to a standstill when the rains come. Almost, every settlement feels the pangs of the devastating effects of the rains with its associated lightning and thunderstorms depending on the magnitude and volume of rainfall.

In recent times, the combined effect of climate change, environmental degradation and lack of proper planning of settlements, the rains which are supposed to be a blessing by nature becomes more of a nuisance and almost a curse to human settlement and survival.

Additionally, the huge developmental deficit of a lot of our local communities and the resultant challenges in the wake of natural disasters especially the ones occasioned by rainstorms lays ample testimony to our non-responsiveness, non-readiness and unpreparedness to deal decisively with the negative effects of these natural phenomena.

Speaking of rainstorms which rip off the roofing of some buildings and destroy electric poles and masts, to flooding which leads to the collapse of some buildings, it is clear that when the rains come especially in full force we literally "hold our hearts in our hands" until the rains subside.

Many communities are cut off for days as most rivers and streams overflow their banks, roads become muddy, inaccessible and impassable as some bridges connecting communities collapse or are washed away at the start of heavy rains. Inadvertently, movement to and fro some communities becomes almost impossible thereby cutting off supplies of food, water, medicine and other emergency relief items to displaced people and communities.

Our communities are never the same when the rains cease, we are left in its trail heaps of debris, rubbish, choked gutters, huge potholes etc. as a result of human activities. Subsequently, we encounter unpleasant situations like dust engulfing our communities, outbreak of epidemics such as cholera and the breeding of mosquitoes. As a matter of fact, this is an annual cycle or 'ritual' which can be forecasted or predicted with absolute certainty.

Gone are the days when communal labour was used to fix basic problems in our various communities. In times past, some schools, health centres and feeder roads were constructed through communal labour. In anticipation of the rains and its consequences gutters and drains were thoroughly desilted, blockades of waterways were removed, trees were planted by river sides to protect water bodies, weedy areas were cleared during communal labour, and when these were done the rains did not engulf our communities and our communities were not submerged by flood waters in the manner we have been experiencing in recent times.

Lately, due to urbanization and globalization, people build in water ways with impunity! Wetlands are being filled everywhere to put up buildings, the practice of communal labour to prop up our own communities is identified in recent times as a taboo in some communities as we sadly look on for our beloved communities to sink down the doldrums.

It is very sad to note that, as citizens, we have adopted the attitude of waiting on government to do the basic things that we could do for our communities such as desilting of gutters. But we need to realize that when the unpleasant situation comes staring at us in our communities, ‘government' does not reside in the communities with us and so will not suffer the consequences of these challenges. As residents of these communities, we bear the brunt of the mess.

Quite interesting and intriguing at the same time is the fact that, most of the beautiful and bigger structures in our communities are churches, mosques and other religious buildings which were built through the benevolence and the regular contributions from residents of our various communities. However, it is not uncommon to find the roads leading to these edifices in a deplorable state, something which could easily be fixed through the same means by which these mighty religious structures were built. Residents fail “some-way somehow” to recognize the fact that if they have been able to build a church or mosque through their modest contributions then they can equally fix the roads leading to these important places of religious significance.

In truth, if the building of the church or mosque was to be a responsibility of government, residents would never construct it but would wait upon government to do so. However, once construction of roads is a responsibility of the government, it would continue to remain deplorable until such a time that government would finally be ready to fix it. How can we develop as a nation with such negative attitudes and mentality?

Similarly, in some communities the combined value of individual assets and properties in terms of buildings, vehicles, shops, factories etc. juxtaposed with the bad roads on which residents ply with these expensive vehicles into the properties makes a complete nonsense of the valuable assets and properties. If individuals within a vicinity or community can own such valuable assets and properties, why can’t they equally pool resources to fix the basic challenges confronting them such as bad roads?

Just because we are wired to think that it is the responsibility of government to fix roads most people especially the affluent in society who could easily come together to fix the problem would rather whine and complain each time, they ply the deplorable roads.

The legitimate question is if we can individually build huge mansions, buy expensive cars and pool resources to build big churches and mosques why can't we in a similar fashion, solve some of our fundamental community challenges as enumerated above?

Due to the underdevelopment of our communities there is the natural propensity to lampoon government, government agencies and public officials whose mandate and responsibility it is to put proper structures in place to ensure the accelerated development of our local communities. Rightly so because, as citizens we pay our taxes to government and we expect our taxes to work for us. If our taxes are not working for us as expected, we have every right to call out the government to do the needful.

Government over the years is doing a great job through the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). NADMO has been rebranded and retooled in recent times to be more proactive rather than reactive in managing disasters. They are definitely doing their best, unfortunately their best is not enough. There still remains more room for improvement. The story is the same with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and also the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) who are the vanguards of national and community development. In fact, their value remains the same.

The focus of this write up is therefore not on what is expected of government and its agencies but, on what we can do as residents of our various communities to remedy the sad situation of our communities in line with the popular mantra of 'being citizens and not spectators'. John F. Kennedy, Ex-President of the United States of America in his 1961 inaugural address remarked quite unequivocally' ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country'. I believe this should be the guiding principle of all whose passion it is to see the total development of our communities and massive improvement in the lives of our compatriots.

One thing that we need to understand as a people is that government alone cannot do it as the piece meal approach to development by government would never deliver for our communities the much-needed results that are needed in the short to medium term to make our lives better. Possibly, if we want to wait on government and its agencies to solve the basic problems confronting our communities then we may have to wait forever.

From the foregoing it is evidently clear that it is high time we came together as a people to begin to have a deeper conversation on how to manage our local communities without necessarily resorting to government or calling on government to intervene. We have all it takes to make our communities work again, let us take action now and show the way. Let us learn from the good examples that are being set by others and do the needful.

I therefore call on all community leaders at all levels, our chiefs and elders, Assembly and Unit Committee Members, Priests and Priestesses, Reverend Ministers and Pastors, Imams and Mallams as well all community stakeholders to come together and rally the support of community members to spearhead local community development. It is possible, we can achieve a lot with ease when we come together. Indeed, in unity lies strength.

I believe in the natural abilities of the good people of this country to resolve our own community challenges with tenacity of purpose. Let us rise above partisan politics and pettiness and prove to the world once again that indeed "The Blackman is capable of managing his/her own affairs" as expounded by His Excellency the first President of the Republic Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

May the Almighty God continue to bless our homeland Ghana and make us great and strong.

*Felix Kwame Quainoo*
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The writer is a freelancer residing at Aboso in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality of the Western Region