The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation, Mahama Ayariga has said Ghanaians are now more enlightened and must therefore help address the various problems facing the nation.
“…we are more enlightened because many more of us have been through formal education than those who came before us…and we have better technology to address the problems than they had and I believe that our economy is much, much better than it was in that century and so our collective effort should be able to address this problem once and for all,” he remarked.
[contextly_sidebar id=”4DybIKrZMzETIyUeVp3wwVWxcfakDRpw”]Speaking at Citi FM’s, Fixing the urban mess forum on the theme: ‘This Must Stop,’ the sector Minister said it crucial for the current generation in Ghana to make sure the nation succeeds because according to him, “if we fail, I doubt if anybody else will ever be able to do it.”
The forum was to help find solutions to the challenges bedeviling Accra, following last week’s devastating floods and fire outbreak which claimed over 150 lives.
Too many pieces of legislation
Mahama Ayariga admitted that there are too many scattered pieces of legislation made up of different Acts, Ordinances, Legal Instruments (LIs) and guidelines on the planning and development of lands.
He also mentioned that there is also the problem of many institutions involved in the execution of the numerous laws.
These situations, according to the Minister have created room for corruption and inefficiency.
“We’ve created so many steps in the process and every step needs authorization and so we make it almost difficult or even impossible for people to comply,” he acknowledged.
Land administration project
The Environment Minister disclosed that his Ministry’s quest to sanitize the system has undertaking the land administration project which is partly handled by the World Bank.
The project is aimed at bringing together all institutions which are mandated to supervise land acquisitions and developments and their institutional arrangements will be harmonized under a legislation which is expected to be passed by Parliament.
The legislation called land use and spacial development legislation is presently before cabinet waiting for approval.
It will then be sent to Parliament for members of the House to approve it as well.
“When it is approved by Parliament, we will have a the harmonization of the institutions that are involved in all this into one single coordinating committee that has representation from all the institution that are involved so that that structure can be replicated at the regional and the district levels to make it easy for the administration of spacial development and the use of land in this country,” the Minister explained.
He was certain that if “we go through these processes; I believe that we will make it easier for citizens to comply.”
He argued that “the framework is there, the institutions are there” but admitted that “coordination is a problem, enforcement is a problem and ultimately, a culture of ‘not minding the law’ has been developed which we would have to try and change in the minds of the citizenry.”
Respect the law
Mahama Ayariga stressed that it is important for the public to appreciate the fact that there are laws regulating the development of spaces and “they must respect those pieces of legislation.”
“…we are looking at how to simply the processes and how to involve the private sector in a lot of the work that must be done in managing spacial development. We must look at who is responsible for what then we can begin to think about how we can get everyone to live up to their responsibility.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @ osamidan