Ghana said to lose 10,000 productive hours to vehicular traffic
Ghana currently loses a minimum of 10,000 productive hours each day to traffic, Mr Kosi Dedey, Conventions People’s Party (CPP) shadow Cabinet Member for Lands and Forestry, said on Wednesday in Accra.
According to him, the period which equated to 50 people working eight hours a day in a year, had arisen because several political administrations had failed to plan for the efficient and scientific approach to the zoning of lands.
Mr Dedey, who was speaking at a press conference in Accra, said “if we had planned our physical infrastructure properly most of the traffic would have disappeared.
“If we plan and utilise land efficiently, many of the floods will be no more…and we will have food all year round.”
The seventh CPP press conference dubbed: “How CPP Will Do It,” is a series of meetings being organised by the party’s executives to outline that party’s alternative policies and solutions on pertinent national issues.
Speaking on government’s recent action on private acquisition of state lands, Mr Dedey said the authorities had not behaved in a responsible manner, stressing that though the CPP believed in the principle of government acquisition of lands for public use, the acquisition had to be done in a progressive and efficient manner to restore public trust in the process.
He said a more scientific approach to land zoning, a well resourced District, Municipal and Metropolitan Authority and a fixed number of local government structures to allow for long-term land use and planning, would provide efficient solutions to the land crisis in the country.
Mr Dedey suggested the use of bamboo as a replacement for timber for furniture and other domestic needs to save the country’s forest reserve.
“We will ensure a reliable supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas to reduce the pressure on the forest and savannah woodlands to prevent deforestation and desertification.”
Mr Dedey said the Forestry Commission would be resourced to protect wild life and called for a law reform to prohibit the creation of more districts and regions to existing ones.
He gave the assurance that under a CPP elected government, estate developers would be better managed to ensure proper integration of the required social infrastructure.
Mr Ladi Nylander, Party Chairman, said the party would continue to organise conferences to announce alternative policies on national issues and to make known efficient programmes the CPP would roll out when elected to power.
Mr George O. Aggudey, one-time flag bearer and present shadow Interior Minister of the party, is expected to address the press next week.
Source: GNA