Gov secures $6.5m to upgrade slums
THE Norwegian government has provided the Government of Ghana $6.5 million as seed capital for the execution of the pilot phase of the National Spatial Plan project, which is geared towards fighting slums in the country.
It would commence in the Western Region on a pilot project basis, and later replicated in all the other nine regions in the country.
The Minister for Environment Science and Technology, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, who disclosed this at Sekondi on Tuesday, said the government was ready to commence the project with all the required determination.
She, however, entreated stakeholders to embrace the concept, in order to enable her ministry and agencies directly involved in the execution of the project realise the long standing aspiration of national reconstruction and proper planning of towns and cities in Ghana.
According to the Minister, the execution of the spatial development framework would require the creation of synergy between the oil and gas industry in Ghana and the rest of the country's economy.
This, she said, would guarantee that the exploration and exploitation of the natural resources of the country meet the total needs of the citizenry.
The project, she underscored, would take into account, environmental protection, particularly, against the negative impacts of the oil and gas industry, which the Ministry considers a major concern.
'A key policy objective of this government's Better Ghana agenda is to ensure that the practices of the oil and gas industry are consistent with international standards of environmental sustainability,' she pointed out.
Ms. Sherry Ayittey said, considering that the discovery of oil and gas had already appeared to be worsening the haphazard physical planning and land use practices, particularly, in the Western Region, special attention ought to be paid to the development of human settlements near the areas of the oil and gas production and other related activities.
Inaugurating an eleven-member oversight committee, chaired by the Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, which includes the President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Awulae Attiburkusu, to spearhead the spatial planning frame work project in the region, the Minister said the overall objective and goal of the project was to create decent cities and towns in Ghana.
'The overall goal of this human settlements development is to ensure that all organised human activities within our cities, towns and villages are undertaken in a planned and spatially determined manner, in order to bring about equity and enhanced socio economic development.'
Beyond that, she said, 'Government aims at ensuring that human settlements developments policy will focus on spatial land use planning and management, urban development, management of housing/shelter, slum upgrading and prevention, disaster prevention, institutional arrangements, hierarchy of human settlements and rural development and management.'
The Minister attributed the underdevelopment of the country to lack of planning. 'The under-developed physical manifestation that we see in Ghana today, is indeed, a net result of the virtual neglect of spatial land use planning as an integral part of our national economic agenda.' Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, who supported the minister to inaugurate the committee and launched the project, bemoaned the threat the sprawling nature of slums in the country was posing.
He expressed worry: 'The threat of slum development cannot be discounted, and this should concern everybody. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past for this region.' On the other hand, he said, Ghana should be inspired by the beauty of properly planned cities in some parts of the world, and aspire to replicate that.
He stressed: 'For example, we should concern ourselves with arranging streets and blocks, planning for provision of public services, and restricting specific uses such as industry to certain areas, traffic flow, and strategies for economic revitalisation of depressed urban and rural areas.'
He reminded stakeholders that whilst they embark on the exercise, they should it take upon themselves to educate the populace on the 'dos and don'ts' to give room for improvement in the management and use of land, to avoid the annual ritual of floods.
Among the core functions assigned to the eleven-member oversight committee by the Minister include, the review and adaptation of the work programme of the team of experts in charge of the preparation of the Regional Spatial Development Framework (RSDF), mobilisation of regular support for the effective participation of all key stakeholders, including metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).
The committee, she noted, would also facilitate data collection and organisation of regional stakeholders' fora to support the preparation of the RSDF.
It would also ensure the effective dissemination of the RSDF to a wider populace, and liaise with the National Technical Committee, by providing the bridge between the consulting team and the National Technical Committee.