The President of the Ghana Institution of Architects (GIA), Mr Osei Kwame Agyemang, says demolishing Sodom and Gommorah is a myopic way of addressing the development challenges of Accra because the approach lacks proper planning. He said for human development to be meaningful, all settlements must be preceded by planning, but expressed regret that in the case of Ghana and particularly Accra that had not been the case and because there was no proper planning, the estimated 45,000 residents to be ejected from the slum were likely to filter into other parts of the city, create new slums and worsen the already bad sanitation, vehicular traffic and other development challenges facing Accra. Sharing some thoughts with the Daily Graphic on the occasion of World Habitat Day which was marked Monday on the theme, "Planning our urban future", Mr Agyemang stressed the need for Ghana to draw useful lessons from the negative impact of such slums to fashion out a structured plan for the proper development of the country's cities. He said the development challenges facing Accra, such as vehicular traffic, poor sanitation, squatters and slums, "are all because we are not planning properly". The celebration of World Habitat Day, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), is to reflect on the state of the world's towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The celebration coincides with the commemoration of World Day of Architects. About 1.3 million architects in 25 countries world-wide marked the day, instituted by the International Union of Architects. Mr Agyemang said the demolition of Sodom and Gommorah might not be the solution to the problem because the authorities had not planned alternative arrangements to properly integrate the residents into society. Therefore, the ejected residents were likely to relocate to other parts of Accra, thereby compounding the already bad situation in the city. He cited the eviction of car dealers along the Motorway Extension for the construction of that road as another instance of poor city planning. He said the car dealers were only asked to move away from the area, without giving them a place for relocation, and so they were likely to move to a place not meant for their operation and that would pose another challenge to development in the future. Making another reference to the relocation of traders from the old Kasoa Market along the Accra-Cape Coast Highway to the new Kasoa Market, Mr Agyemang said the exercise was only meant for the convenience of the construction of the road, without considering the interest of traders, and so the problem bad not been addressed. He said ideally, people ought to build within a structured plan, noting, however, that from the current situation, it appeared planning had been overtaken by developers. He said planning should be the basis for development, adding that the implementation of a structured plan required an inter-sectoral approach involving all the relevant sectors for the provision of infrastructure such as schools, roads, electricity, water and health facilities. When asked who should take the blame for the sprawling slums in the cities, Mr Agyemang said, "Consistently, development is growing faster than it can be contained and so you cannot blame anybody." He said the Town and Country Planning Department, which played a major role in city planning, had serious capacity constraints that could not allow it to deal effectively with the development challenges of Accra and other cities. He said the Tudu Lorry Station, the Timber Market and the Konkomba Yam Market in Accra, for instance, should all be relocated to the outskirts of the city in order to make good use of the plots of land they occupy. Mr Agyemang said it was time the nation defined its vision on urban policy and human settlement, adding that there was the need to adopt a total integrated approach that allowed everybody to fit into the economic structure. Source: Daily Graphic