Hon. Daniel Botwe, Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development has charged Metropolitan/ Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to live up to their statutory responsibilities within the Local Government Act 2016 (Act 936) and the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act 2016 (Act 925) to help build sustainable and resilient cities within the country.
The Minister was speaking to MMDCEs and Metropolitan/ Municipal and District Coordinating Directors, Heads of Physical and Works Departments of all twenty-nine (29) Assemblies in the Greater Accra Region at a meeting held to discuss spatial planning activities within the Region.
The meeting provided the platform to discuss the bottlenecks in the spatial planning and permitting roles and procedures within the Region with the aim of proposing workable solutions on the way forward.
According to the Minister, this has become necessary due to the perennial flooding and its related matters that hit Accra recently and other places across the country which Cabinet directed that urgent and immediate actions be taken to address the situation nationwide, starting with the Greater Accra.
This, the Minister said is as a result of the challenge of the poor state of urban land-use planning and management; posing as a major contributing factor to the perennial flooding, with reference to the rapid growth of population and increasing urbanization which has placed huge demands on local authorities with respect to the provision of housing, sanitation and other related services.
He urged MMDCEs to ensure adherence to their statutory mandate reflected in the various legislations governing spatial planning and land use to help provide adequate spatial direction for physical development within the various assemblies which forms the fulcrum for development control.
Source: MLGDRD Public Relations Unit