Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly holds forum

By Hayford
O-Akrofi, GNA

Accra, Sept. 14, GNA – The Ablekuma North
Municipal Assembly is endowed with huge economic and human resources that need
sustained efforts to transform to bring the needed improvements in the lives of
the its people.

It is therefore incumbent upon the assembly to
economically empower the many youth and entrepreneurial members to enhance the
living standards of the people.

Mr Kofi Ofori, the Municipal Chief Executive
(MCE) stated this during the first Community Needs Assessment Forum for seven
electoral areas in the municipality towards the preparation of the 2018-2021
Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) for the assembly.

The two-day fora which were held separately
for Sakaman, Otaten and Odorkor electoral areas on one side, and Kwashieman,
Darkuman East, Darkuman West and Awoshie on other, brought together assembly
members, traditional rulers, religious leaders, members of identifiable groups
and artisans  as well as heads of
departments.

Even though Mr. Ofori acknowledged that the
task ahead for the development of the newly created municipality was a
herculean one, he was of the belief that ‘’the resolve to see an enviable
striving municipality should spur all stakeholders on to overcome all envisaged
constraints and challenges’’.

He said the municipality which was carved out
of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) had a limited period during the public
hearing on community needs which will invariably form the basis of the
assembly’s MTDP for 2018-2021.

Mr. Ofori said by law, the assembly was required
to engage the public throughout the plan preparation processes in order to make
it participatory and legitimate hence the forum.

The MCE expressed worry about the poor
sanitation conditions in the municipality and asked for effective and
innovative strategies that could be adopted to overcome the challenges and
improve upon the situation.

During the public discourse, all stakeholders
were unanimous that some of the major problems confronting the electoral areas
included serious drainage challenges resulting in the flooding of most areas
any time there was a downpour, poor road network, lack of street lights in
certain areas, indiscriminate dumping of garbage especially into drains
culminating in choked gutters and insanitary conditions as well as lack of markets
and lorry stations.

Taking the stakeholders through steps in
preparing the MTDP, Hajiah Mamata Musah Sheriff, a Development Planning Officer
of the assembly said the forum was the first in the series of three public
hearings to take place.

Hajiah Sheriff said after the first one which
was basically consultative in nature to collate the concerns of stakeholders
from the various electoral areas, a second one would be held to confirm whether
the views collated reflected what the stakeholders expressed during the first
public hearings.

Finally, she said a third one would be held
for a draft copy to be shown to them before taking it to the assembly’s general
meeting for adaptation and approval and onward transmission to the National
Development Planning Commission (NDPC) through the Regional Co-ordinating
Council (RCC).

GNA

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