Ghana: U.S $1.6 Million to Develop Western Coastal Districts

Alfred Adams

22 July 2011

Takoradi — A total of $1.6 million is being committed by the Jubilee partners to develop six coastal districts of the Western Region.

The objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of the six districts with professionally crafted development plans to serve as the basis for both structural and human development in the short to medium term.

The six districts are Sekondi-Takoradi, Ellembelle, Jomoro, Shama, Ahanta West and Nzema East. To this end, a national launch of the spatial land use plan for the six coastal districts was launched yesterday by the Minister for Environment Science and Technology, Madam Sherry Ayittey.

The programme was on the theme ‘Town Planning: an Imperative for Sustainable Oil economy in Western Region.’

Dr. Toni Aubynn, a representative of the Jubilee partners, told the gathering that the partners thought it wise to first roll out the project to ensure that the socio-economic and environmental fundamentals are put to right, in order to facilitate an easy economic take off.

He added that apart from spatial land planning, individual district plans would be complementary additions to ensure that the districts also map out effective strategies and systems to transform their areas, thereby becoming hubs for socio-economic change.

“Our expectation, therefore, as Jubilee partners, is that when this programme is fully rolled out, the perennial haphazard development usually associated with the region, where extractive industry activities take place, would be drastically abated,” he said.

Dr. Toni Aubynn further added that the Jubilee partners envisaged that the project would help arrest the problems associated with uncontrolled development, leading to slums and encroachment of drains and river-courses for residential purposes.

He, however, said incompatible land uses may raise the cost of doing business in Sekondi-Takoradi, as well as serve as a disincentive for prospective investors.

This is the best time for the structural growth of Sekondi-Takoradi and the rest of the district capitals to be planned, with reference to the expected population immigration in the region.

Dr. Toni Aubyn, who is also the Communications Director of Tullow, pointed out that the primary importance of the project was the re-engineering of the social, economic and cultural dynamics within their enclaves.

This is because the purpose of the project would be defeated, if local authorities and assemblies failed to implement the project.

The President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, Awulae Attibrukusu III, who lauded the project, asked his colleague chiefs to endorse it.

He added that the success of the project would be dependent on the traditional authorities who were the custodians of land, and asked them to cooperate with the authorities in charge of the spatial planning project.

Awulae Attibrukusu, however, bemoaned the manner in which chiefs had been selling out lands without considering the future of the unborn generations.

Madam Sherry Ayittey, who launched the project, said spatial planning would define how chiefs were supposed to use and sell lands. That apart, it would ensure land is put to optimum use and curtail situations whereby traditional chiefs sell out land without recourse to city authorities.

She continued that the absence of land planning had been the cause of haphazard land development in the country.

For this reason, she disclosed that her Ministry had developed a land planning bill which would be sent to cabinet for deliberation and approval, and then forwarded to Parliament for passage into law.

She said if the bill is passed into law, it would seek to address the shortfalls of laws and regulations relating to land use and planning.

This would harmonise regulations and laws so that there would be uniformity in land use. The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Madam Emelia Arthur, who chaired the programme advocated for effective use of land.

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