Rural, urban migration cause slums in Ghana

Mr Sylvanus Kofi Adzornu, Head of the Urban Development Unit at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development says rural urban migration is the cause of slums in Ghana.

He said the population of Accra and Kumasi alone put pressure on the infrastructure and social amenities, therefore creating slums in the city.

Mr Adzornu was contributing to a discussion on Affordable Housing Network organised at the United Nations Habitat III Conference held in Quito, Ecuador on Wednesday.

He said the politicisation of important issues in Ghana was one of the major problems that set back the country’s development, adding: “Our institutions must be working without any politics.”

“It is an offence for people to build on water ways in Ghana, but people build on water ways with impunity with no respect for our laws.”

The Head of the Urban Development Unit said there was the need for uniformity and equal disbursement of public funds and state houses in all parts of the country to reduce rural-urban migration, which was the major cause of slums in our cities.

He said it took many countries a number of years to develop their cities and Ecuador was no exception.

The UN Habitat III Conference is a platform to ratify and adopt the New Urban Agenda which would focus on Sustainable Urban Development, including issues such as housing, slum prevention and upgrading, climate change, protection and public safety.

The Habitat III, the third conference in line with the bi-decennial cycle (1976, 1996 and 2016 is aimed at invigorating and securing a renewed global political commitment to sustainable urbanization to focus on the implementation of a “New Urban Agenda”, building on the Habitat Agenda of Istanbul in 1996.

Source: GNA