‘Make slums safe, healthy living places’

The 2014 World Habitat Day was marked in Accra yesterday, with a call on the government to upgrade all slums into safe and healthy living places.

In a statement read on his behalf, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the slums should be upgraded by providing them with basic social amenities such as safe water, drains, lighting, electricity and better shelter, among others.

He also called on the Ghana government to ensure a robust urban management and planning system through the provision of safe affordable houses, among other interventions, to address the problem of the springing up of slums due to urbanisation.

He said more than one billion of the world’s population lived in slums, for which reason the 2014 celebration of the day had been devoted to giving a voice to slum dwellers.

Mr Ban said inhabitants of slums were forced by the lack of opportunities in the rural areas to migrate to the urban centres in search of better conditions of life.

He encouraged the government to pay attention to the grievances of slum dwellers and include them in policy-making, particularly those that would affect them.

World Habitat Day

The international theme for the 2014 World Habitat Day is, “Voices from the slums”.

Ghana celebrated the day on the theme, “Voices from the slums: Ensuring a clean and healthy environment”.

The UN has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day.

The celebration provides an occasion for stakeholders and all individuals to reflect on the state of towns and cities and the right of all to adequate shelter.

It is also intended to remind the world that all citizens have the power and responsibility to help shape the future of the world’s cities and towns.

In a statement read on his behalf, the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, conceded that affordable safe housing was a major challenge in the country and that the government was working hard to surmount that challenge.

He said more than 17 per cent of Ghana’s 24 million people lived in Accra, resulting in huge pressure on the already distressed housing sector.

He said majority of the inhabitants of Accra lived in slums.

Govt  interventions

Alhaji Dauda said measures being taken by the government to address the problem included the affordable housing projects at Borteyman, Tema and in the Ashanti Region, among other projects nationwide.

He said the ministry had completed a draft national housing policy to address the problem and explained that the policy proposed to establish a housing fund to facilitate affordable mortgage products, slum upgrading and support for small-scale producers of building materials.

Imbibe hygiene

In his keynote address, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, expressed worry over the high number of reported cases of cholera, particularly in the slums.

He called an all, particularly inhabitants of the various slums, to practise personal and environmental hygiene to ensure good health.

He said the ministry had collaborated with other ministries to fashion out a slum upgrading strategy to address the challenges confronting slums, among other intervention measures.

Writer’s email doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh