Private Legal Practitioner, Ace Ankomah has attributed the poor state of Ghana’s urban areas to the disregard for the laws instituted by the Town and Country Planning Department.
He believes that there is a major disconnect between laws instituted by the Department and the actual situation on the ground.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Cj90wXsYZVi1Jm6uvUeqRBNGDIgbFHpG”]”…If the law in Ghana is applied, this will be one of the best places to live. But often the problem is a disconnect between the law and the reality,” he said.
He was speaking at a forum organised by Citi FM in Accra on the theme ‘Fixing the Urban Mess’.
The forum comes on the back of last week’s floods which led to the death of about 150 people in a fuel station explosion.
Ace Ankomah said that adherence to even the oldest laws would rid the country of filth.
He however wondered how adamant authorities had been in enforcing those laws.
“…Can we enforce the law, is society suppose to follow the law or is the law suppose to follow society because if you read Ghana’s law and you look at the practice it is as if we are in two different countries.”
He further called for a stiffer punishment regime for littering, adding that local authorities must be up to the task of providing the necessary infrastructure to prevent disasters in the future.
“Literally you can’t throw garbage anywhere except the place the Local Authority has authorised it and , it is an offence … if you throw garbage out in your yard and the place is not designated by the Local Authority it is an offence which should be picked up.”
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By: Christopher Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana