There have been several news reports this year about the President being determined to make Accra Africa’s cleanest city. It would be great especially if he was also able to transform it into what has come to be termed a ‘resilient city’, in other words one which can withstand the impact of natural and man-made disasters. Most resilient cities are relatively clean, and clean cities are often resilient.
As the capital city of Ghana, Accra doesn’t only attract people from other parts of Ghana; it is also a gateway to West Africa. Roughly 18 percent of Ghana’s 26 million people live here – 4.4 million people. Like all cities, this is the centre of economic activity and the place where people come in search of opportunity. Cities born out of increasing urbanization are the hub of national progress and reflect the growing modernization of a country, and the city of Accra is no exception. However if urbanization is left unplanned, residents end up with an increasingly chaotic, sprawling mass of land with too many slums and informal settlements. Is it any surprise that we now have to create a Ministry for “Zongos” and Inner City development? I hope this Ministry is only for the short term because slums do not have to be a permanent feature of our cities.
These days it is hard to point at Accra’s borders. The Greater Accra Region, not just the city of Accra, is now more or less a metropolitan area. The entire region is more urban than rural. Accra used to be the metropolitan area of the Greater Accra region, but today we can consider the whole region to be a metropolitan area…from Weija in the west to Ada in the east. That is how much the city has grown. That’s why some refer to GAMA – the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. It’s even being referred to as a “city region”.
Planning and Coordination
Rapid urbanization has taken hold with a population explosion. However this has not been matched with comprehensive and holistic city planning, infrastructure and basic services. As a result, even though we have more of an urban than a rural system, we are not sufficiently deriving the benefits of an urban system such as good sanitation and a better standard of living. Instead the city of Accra regularly suffers from flooding, fire outbreaks, cholera outbreaks, land conflicts, poor roads, traffic congestion, poor drainage and flimsy informal settlements. Less than half of the residents have adequate access to toilet facilities and less than ten percent of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area has a sewerage system. Furthermore, less than half of the waste generated is collected and properly disposed, while the rest is discarded in open areas and drainage channels, which further exacerbates floods. We cannot continue this way.
The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area comprises 16 local government authorities. We call them assemblies; either metropolitan, municipal or district, depending on their population size. There are 2 metropolitan assemblies, 9 municipal assemblies and 5 district assemblies. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is the largest of these assemblies. The way these assemblies are currently run, a problem in Adenta has nothing to do with the AMA and its Chief Executive, also known as the Mayor. Rather it has everything to do with the Adenta Municipal Assembly. However our district assemblies could achieve a lot more for the good of the city if they coordinated their activities more because one area’s problem can so easily become everybody else’s problem. When one part of the chain doesn’t work, the whole thing falls apart and the entire city suffers.
I have been reading a recent World Bank Report on Cities and it speaks of “a fragmentation of jurisdictions and lack of coordination among metropolitan, municipal district assemblies”.
Without coordination of their activities, it will be difficult to prepare plans that are
sensitive to the needs of contiguous areas and the absence of contiguous planning is what results in the chaos we see daily. I have actually been to parts of Accra where flooding has occurred unnecessarily, because one local authority has completed its part of the drainage, but the neighbouring one hasn’t. So the water is carried at top speed into the adjoining community because the large concrete pipes carrying the water suddenly come to an end. Ghana boasts several plans for the purpose of joint planning much of which can be found in the National Development Planning Act, 1994 (Act 480). There is even a model for the preparation of comprehensive spatial development and structural plans for all assemblies. Is it being applied?
Too many blueprints for development remain on the shelves. Why we think it’s ok to develop so many important plans and not use them is an exercise worth seeking an answer to. It might make all the difference. There are endless amounts of research material designed to provide solutions to our many city management problems. It’s all there. We just have to do it.
Fighting the annual ritual of flooding
Year in year out, flooding destroys lives and property to no end. The floods of June 3, 2015 are still fresh in our minds as a reminder that tragedy can take place unexpectedly. In a matter of hours, continuous rainfall flooded Accra and produced a leakage at a filling station that exploded and killed 150 people. Property and livelihoods were washed away. 52,622 people were affected and according to World Bank estimates, reconstruction needs amounted to over $100 million. The flooding was reported as one of the 10 deadliest disasters worldwide in 2015 and it didn’t only highlight the exposure of the city to floods; it also revealed a weak emergency response capacity at the city level. Weak emergency response in particular accounts for the havoc wreaked by fires every now and then. Here too, there have been several reports on how to address the problem. Suggestions include mapping and demarcating of flood plains and creating buffer zones of drainage channels to improve drainage and flood control. In fact, the latest World Bank report on the subject calls for the enforcement of existing regulations with regards to building and waste disposal and other municipal bye laws. The need for better coordination between responsible agencies (such as the Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads, Department of Feeder Roads and Hydrological Services Department) and the 16 MMDAs for drainage works and maintenance is also highlighted. The lack of coordination results in disjointed initiatives and lack of clarity on institutional responsibilities.
There is a recommendation for a substantial increase in assembly budgets to enable them carry out the daily operation and maintenance of the drainage system and hydraulic infrastructure. Too often we expect them to deliver meaningful services without providing them with the resources and tools to deliver.
These days the speed at which flooding occurs is simply unimaginable and the report urges city authorities to identify and secure areas that increase retention capacity and reduce runoff. Implementing these recommendations can go a long way to address the problem of flooding that occurs every time it rains. In fact, it doesn’t have to rain for any significant period of time for the problem to arise.
The problem of floods in our cities is made even worse by the fact that too many of our drains are clogged with refuse which has not been collected and disposed of properly.
There is a need for major awareness creation on proper solid waste disposal methods but once again the lack of adequate well engineered and appropriate waste transfer and disposal sites compounds the problem.
It’s a vicious circle – the cause is the effect and the effect is the cause.
There is also the subject of climate change. Remote as this may seem, it’s impact cannot be underestimated and rather than see it as some abstract concept, we need to begin to take this seriously and do something about it. Sea level rise and storm surges are on the increase. Climate change effects on temperature and rainfall patterns will exacerbate the intensity and frequency of floods and increase the number of catastrophic events if we don’t take action now. Cities like Takoradi are already under threat. I grew up there. I’m seeing it happen.
People, flooding doesn’t have to be a way of life. We don’t need to lose precious lives on an annual basis as though it were inevitable. There is much we can do to forestall these crises; a crisis that has a particularly devastating effect on the least prepared and most vulnerable; and there several such communities in Greater Accra and beyond.
Vulnerable communities
They are the most affected during natural and man-made disasters. Places like Alajo and Nima in Accra which lack access to basic services and infrastructure and which are often found located in low lying areas are particularly susceptible to floods. There are also places like Old Fadama where people live in the most appalling conditions.
If we are to be our brother’s keeper, it is time to do something about this. Very often, we see these communities springing up but do nothing until it is too late. In the past the call has been to relocate people as though this was a straightforward exercise. I will never forget what former mayor of Accra, Nat Nunoo Amartefio, once said to me in an interview: “relocating 50 people is an administrative act. Relocating 10,000 people is a political decision”. Government needs to quickly identify all the vulnerable settlements across the 16 MMDAs and invest in them. It needs to develop and implement a comprehensive slum upgrading and redevelopment strategy as part of existing development plans. If not, we shall forever be dealing with disasters, something we are not particularly good at either. There is too much reactiveness rather than a proactive approach.