The lead author of a report into slums and informal settlements in Ghana, launched by Good Governance Africa (GGA) Dr Ronald Adamtey believes leaving the provision of affordable housing in the hands of the private sector might be counter-productive.
According to him, the private sector is driven by profits and might not be best-placed to provide affordable housing to lower income citizens.
“One of the important gaps in the housing policy is the contradiction and conflict in the policy itself. So the policy is internally weak, the policy claims it wants to make the private sector a key factor in the housing provision. In the same vain the policy says it will make housing affordable, and we think that these two things cannot go together.
“The private sector is interested in profits so they may not be able to provide affordable housing. We think that affordable will be housing that the low and middle income can afford”.
To reduce this trend, Dr Ronald Adamtey suggested that the government should desist from forcefully evicting slum dwellers and focus instead on developing these areas.
“We also say don’t force evictions. KMA and AMA have tried. We also have evidence that global support is not there for forced eviction. First, moral issues come in and human rights also come in. But why do slums develop in the first place? If you have unused or open space what do you expect to happen there? The state must protect or use unused space otherwise you leave room for people to migrate there.
“Government needs collaboration with other partners. We saw a lot of disjointed efforts, but good intentions by various organizations. Slum dwellers must be part of the equation if look at them illegal swatter and so we don’t include them in the discussion we will fail.”
“Government must also make conscious efforts to develop existing slums”. Dr Ronald Adamtey added.
According to the report, government’s efforts towards building a resilient capital and making Accra the cleanest city in Africa may be curtailed by the existence of slums and their rapid expansion.
A drive across some principal towns in the capital will show the heavy existence of fully-developed slums and informal settlements.
About 265 slums have been identified in Accra; the most notable among them being Nima, Madina Zongo, Agbogbloshie, Chorkor, La, Old Fadama, Sodom and Gomorrah, Teshie, James town and other communities located close to the sea.
These slums keep growing due to urbanization, and population growth as a result of high birth rate and poverty, and are mostly characterised by overcrowding, dilapidated housing structures known as kiosks, inadequate access to potable water and toilet facilities, high crime rates, drug addiction and, above all, poor sanitation.
But in a bid to improve the lots of these slum dwellers and the country as a whole, the government engaged the services of a Singaporean master-planner to ‘redevelop Accra’ and also created the Ministry of Inner city and Zongo Development to adequately tackle these issues.
Presenting the findings on the literature, Dr Ronald Adamtey attributed the fast development of informal settlements in Accra to the inability of government to implement relevant policies.
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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu | citinewsroom.com | Ghana |