Makafui Awuku: Accra is no more safe – Local Assemblies creating death traps instead of solving problems

As an environmentalist and a sustainability professional, I made time to walk about town to document some of the persistent problems we have.

Most of them are just because no supervision and monitoring is being done even though people are getting paid at the end of the month to do them.

The fundamental job of every government is to create enabling environments for citizens.

Sustainable Communities and Cities is a key SDG Goal that Ghana has signed up to and one of the things is that our communities, roads and public spaces are no more becoming safe.

I took time to document the problem of uncovered holes in the city of Accra, Madina and Adenta. These are places I lived and spent time at.

It is worrying to note that some of these holes have been there for at least a year without any attention.

I expect city authorities to go about their duties just as I walk around to document these problems.

These are not problems you fix when you feel like. These are urgent issues. The walk ways and bus stops and major junctions have become death traps and not safe.

Some of these holes are even in the middle of the road like the one in Makola around Lava and cars fall in them every time. Others cause traffic just trying to avoid them and for those who want to keep healthy by doing regular jogging and walking you have to be careful not to break a leg.

The problem?

1. The quality of Blocks and Metals to cover these holes are so poor after a few weeks the iron rods in them are bare
2. Theft of Iron covers by scrap dealers. No one steals the concrete covers so if we do them well we are good.
3. No reporting system to allow citizens to easily report these problems. After I roamed and took a care to visit these 3 communities to document these things I still have to visit the municipal assemblies and beg to see someone to report it. But someone gets paid in that office to do that. There should be contacts and emails easily accessible online that people can use to report these things
4. The turn around time that it takes for these things to be fixed is so bad. So.e of these holes have been there for years.

Sustainable design is a key aspect of urban development and the aim is to make the communities and cities safer and able to support the ideal life that needs to be attained.

The city authorities unfortunately are not making things better. They are even creating more problems themselves like the case of Madina Market road where they have turned both sides of a single road lane into car park making you spent over 30 minutes just to get into the market and leave.

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Makafui Awuku is an Environmentalist, Social Innovator and Sustainability Professional.