Let’s Plan Accra To Promote Urban Mobility & Sustainable Waste Management – Mayor
The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, has underscored the need to plan the city of Accra in a manner that would promote urban mobility and sustainable waste management.
This according to him would help trigger economic and social benefits as well as promote the circular economy.
Mr. Sowah made this known at the opening of a one day conference on Sustainable Cities in Accra organised by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in partnership with the French Embassy and the Institute of Francais, Ghana under the theme ” Challenges and opportunities for waste management and urban mobility in Accra.”
“We are living in a city where 52 per cent of the people commute by walking, biking has also become a modern way of mobility aside the use of cars hence there is the need to plan our city to accommodate all modes of transportation and mobility. On the issue of waste management, every waste is a resource and that is why waste recycling and composting are very important in what we are doing, ” he said.
He expressed concerns over the rate of population growth in the city adding that, this had put a lot of pressure on the city’s infrastructure and social services.
“The city of Accra has grown to about 60 per cent over the past 20 years. The resident population of the city was 1.8 million according to the 2010 population and housing census. Furthermore, there is an extra 2 million people who troop in the city to work and do business, so during the day we have a total of about 4 million in the city, “he said.
“This put’s a lot of pressure on our infrastructure and social services. This is because the pace at which the city is growing is not being matched by the infrastructural and social services. Towards this end, there is the need to properly plan our city in order to mitigate the effects we experience whenever it rains,” he added.
Mayor Sowah expressed gratitude to the City of Paris and the French Embassy in Ghana for the technical support and was hopeful that the collaboration would benefit the two cities.
The French Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency Anne Sophie AVE in a keynote address, said the reason to strengthen ties with the city of Accra was based on the achievement chalked by the city of Accra in the area waste management.
Mr. Victor Kotey, Deputy Head of Waste Management at the AMA in a presentation on the overview of waste management in Accra said the AMA had a waste generation rate of 0.72kg per person per day and a collection coverage of 85 percent adding that the estimated volumes of waste generated in the city per day was 1,650 tons.
He stressed the need to pilot waste segregation at source, enforce sanitation bye-laws, acquire additional waste infrastructure through Public-Private Partnership (PPP ) , develop funding and financial model for sustainable waste management as well as develop policies for informal waste collectors, pickers and recyclers and encourage stakeholder engagement in order to promote effective waste management in the city.
The conference brought together stakeholders from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), waste management service providers as well as media practitioners.
Source: Rainbowradioonline.com