Local Gov’t Minister says will give special attention to environmental sanitation

Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, has said he would focus on environmental sanitation with special attention to open drains in residential areas.

He said even though the construction of drains was within the purview of the urban roads, the assemblies by their powers could enact by-laws that could prohibit the construction of open drains in those areas.

Mr Oppong-Fosu said this at the opening ceremony of a two-day Local Economic Development (LED) workshop in Accra on Wednesday.

He said steps would therefore be taken by the Ministry and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to ensure that all existing drains were covered as well as discourage the construction of such drains through enactment of by-laws.

He said there was the need to mainstream the concept of LED to facilitate, develop and implement employment creation programmes based on natural resource endowments and competitive advantages of every district.

The Minister noted that LED had become a very important component of the decentralization process, which enjoined MMDAs to provide an enabling environment for development.

He said policies to promote job creation, the establishment of local industries and the facilitation of intra and inter-district trade were all part of the mandates of the District Assemblies in the area of LED.

He noted that the time had come for Ghanaians to assess and re-examine the focus of the decentralization agenda and determine what was actually lacking as far as empowering the MMADs to carry their mandate of creating the enabling environment to spur up development at the local level.

He said with the present realities, challenges and priorities of government, District Assemblies have a critical role to play in entrepreneurial development at the grassroots.

He called on District Chief Executives, District Co-coordinating Directors, Development Planning Officers and other actors to provide leadership direction and supervision to ensure proper mainstreaming of LED into their medium term development plans.

He urged the various MMDAs to continue and complete the street naming project to enable the assemblies to mobilise more revenue from property rates for LED.

“We will also strengthen the capacity of MMDAs for accountable, effective and efficient performance and service delivery,” he added.

Mr Ebenzer Akuoko Frimpong, President of the National Association of Local Government Authorities, said they were collaborating with other partners to deepen the decentralization process.

Source: GNA