Ghana: Parliament Commends China for Great Strides

  By Patrice Amegadzie, 20 July 2012

Ghana's Parliament has commended China for her tremendous aid to emerging economies in general, particularly Ghana.

The open door policy initiative by the Chinese government has led to massive boost in trade, ranging between $120 and $160 billion between China and Ghana annually.

Project financing by China on the African continent has led to tremendous improvement in infrastructure, crucial to the development of every nation, according to a statement signed by Kate Addo, Deputy Director of the Public Affairs Department of the office of Parliament.

Speaking at meetings in Beijing, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, who led a six- member parliamentary delegation on a goodwill visit to China, lauded the leaders of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples' Congress (NPC) and the Chinese Peoples' Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

He specifically mentioned China's decision to support the Ghanaian economy with a three billion dollar loan, which he said would go a long way to improve various sectors of the economy and eventually raise the standard of living of Ghanaians.

He disclosed to the Chinese leaders that Ghana, through its Parliament, has approved all relevant documents, and thus urged the China government to ensure prompt disbursement of the funds.

Hon Adjaho took the chance to invite credible investors, assuring them that "an enabling investment climate exists in the country to protect foreign investors." He expressed Parliament's gratitude for the invitation.

The Chairman of CPPCC, His Excellency Jia Qinglin, also praised Ghana for its pace setting in governance and economic strides. He acknowledged the legislature as an important state agency, hence called for its strengthening "to meet the aspirations of the people".

While agreeing to the fact that many countries reckon China as the fastest growing economy globally, the country has not yet achieved its peak and therefore could not be complacent.

The Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, H.E. Mr. Zhou Tienong, said China was ready to "enhance trade and other relations with looking forward countries such as Ghana". He admitted that both countries were faced with the "daunting task of developing their economies, which calls for closer collaboration." He also urged Ghana to continue to operate a fair and transparent government.

The six-member delegation which has since returned home included Deputy Majority Leader, Hon Rasheed Pelpuo and MP for New Abirem, Hon. Esther Obeng Dapaah.

Two Buckets of Water for Every Person Every Day.

Public Agenda| August 21, 2012 | Copyright

Byline: Frederick Asiamah and Patrice Amegadzie

A new standard for defining access to water has been developed, requiring that every person living in a poor- urban settlement or peri-urban area must have at least 10 gallons or two 34-centimetre buckets full of water per day for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene.

In addition, where household connection through pipelines is not feasible, the distance which an individual will cover to fetch water from a source should be limited to 200 metres.

The new standards are contained in a National Strategy for Community Participation in Management of Urban WASH Services which was launched last Thursday in Accra by Hon Nii Nortey Dua, Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing.

The Strategy is a product of the Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene for Urban Poor (WASH-UP) project of the Corporative Housing Foundation International and adopted by the Ministries of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). It was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"With the assumption that most of the target localities for this strategy will not have heavy industrial establishments within their catchment areas, a daily per capita water demand of 40 litres [10.56 gallons] is sufficient for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene for residents," the 38-page strategy document prescribes.

"What this means is that whoever is implementing a water project in a community must ensure that the facility can guarantee, at the least, this amount of water for every individual," Mr Patrick Apoya, consultant for the development of the strategy, explained in an interview with Public Agenda.

Giving an overview of the document at the launching, he emphasised that the quality of water delivered at drawing points should meet the national drinking water standards at the minimum. In other words, water quality should conform to standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).

He added that the strategy, which is laid out in 11 sections, underscores the need to recognise water as a human right. However, there were key issues that needed to be properly addressed before the strategy takes effect.

Speaking on behalf of the substantive Minister, Hon. E.T Mensah, Deputy Minister Nortey Dua asserted that an estimated 51% of Ghanaians live in urban areas but only 62% of urban dwellers have access to improved and clean water.

"The rest have to do with unhygienic and unsafe water from several sources," he decried.
He therefore recognised the need to increase physical access, affordability, and sustainability of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in poor and peri-urban communities.

Cheryl Anderson, Director for USAID-Ghana, assured that the Agency would continuously support and complement the efforts of the government of Ghana in all to address developmental challenges.
For his part, Mr Albert Wilde, Country Director for CHF International, highlighted some success of the WASH-UP project of his organisation, mentioning that the organisation had complemented the efforts of the Ghana Water Company Limited in laying pipelines in poor urban communities such as Avenor and Nima in the Accra Metropolis.

Overall, the WASH-UP project offered water access to 29,000 people across the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
He challenged Ghanaians "to be the change they want to be" as it was the surest way to ensure all our developmental goals were achieved.

Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)

Ghana: Beware of These Death Traps!

Public Agenda (Accra)

 Ghana: Beware of These Death Traps!

Tagged: Ghana, West Africa

By Patrice Kodjo Amegadzie, 13 August 2012

opinion

"Gone too soon", "What a shock!" are some of the common expressions which the Ghanaian has come to associate with posters of deceased persons.

In this country, undertakers and wreath makers are one category of workers who make so much money out of the dead and yet many of them are outside the tax net of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We, however, recognise the few law abiding ones among them who pay their taxes whenever due. We are equally not oblivious of the fact that they pay indirect taxes through their personal purchases.

Let us all be true to ourselves and reflect over this question: would you want to die in the most untrendy fashion such as being knocked down by a car, thus departing without saying adieu or chipping in a word of caution to your children and loved ones or dying intestate without guaranteeing the comfort of your spouse and children? Some of these untimely deaths may occur at the zebra crossing. When you least expect it, that is when the unexpected happens. Hence, decisiveness is a vital rule for all road users, particularly pedestrians.

Zebra crossings derive their names from their resemblance to the white and black patterns on the body of the horse-like specie called zebras. Regrettably, with time many of beautiful looking zebra crossings, inspiring pride in the national psyche begin to fade and it appears no one cares about their restoration. On certain occasions, some reckless drivers even knock down pedestrians right on conspicuous zebra crossings.

The zebra crossing on the Ring Road near the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is gradually becoming a death trap, considering the manner some of these drivers speed up when they get to that spot. This compels pedestrians who cherish their lives to do a bravery stunt at the zebra crossing - run across it - while the appropriate thing to do is to walk across briskly. I think it is important to mount Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at this "death trap". Besides, I think the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has to intensify its educational programmes on zebra crossings in general on all relevant mass media of communication.

Peaking high up in the skies, with some trying to compete with the skyscrapers in Western Europe, are some of the sleek, ill-framed billboards soaring by our roads. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Advertisers Association of Ghana (AAG) must ensure that mounted billboards are strong and well fitted to withstand storms during rains.

It is rather worrying to see many of the billboards damaged or broken down completely after heavy rains. The recent downpour in Accra saw a lot of these billboards wrecking the windscreens of vehicles, causing vehicular traffic, among others. Simply there are mere death traps. Curiously, the new trend about these billboards is that they are being mounted on single pivots with screws at their bases while their main structures are configured using a chain-stretch of low alloyed steels, mainly aluminum, rising high in the sky. However, the standard method for erecting billboards is fixing them into a four-square concrete structure.

The obvious questions which come to mind are: who sees to the engineering of these structures? Who is responsible for the granting permit for the siting of billboards? Certified stickers on these publicity structures should be legible to the public.

What do you like about Ghana? Worldwide, our hospitality has propelled us to fame, but this does not reflect in our hygienic practices. In fact our hygienic habits tend to whittle down our favourable image. Fancy the stench that emanates from many of the drains by which some of our ?neat? food vendors display our favourite delicacies such as fried "infested" rice? Interestingly, some of these vendors pick up food items from glass crafted sieves with tongs, but what is lost on many of us is the fact that the vendors arrange the array of food sold with their bare hands.

Again, we sometimes sneeze or cough directly into our palms, then go ahead and greet others, hence spreading communicable diseases. Such habits have become real death traps athat must be stopped.

I can only express my thoughts in words, but you may have a voice to bring to order the institutions responsible for the supervision of activities related to the issues raised. All of us, collectively, have either moral or legal obligations to work towards freeing our society from the aforementioned death traps. A word to a wise, is said to be enough.

Watch These Things On Nkrumah Circle - Avenor Road

Ghana: Watch These Things On Nkrumah Circle - Avenor Road

Tagged: Business, Ghana, Transport, West Africa

By Patrice Kodjo Amegadzie, 13 July 2012

  The number of vehicles that ply the various routes leading to the Kwame Nkrumah circle during peak and non-peak periods is a sight worth recapturing day in, day out.

The cliché there is time for everything certainly comes into play, particularly if you have ever felt the heat of the scorching sun or have ever endured the annoying moments of being held in traffic for several hours coupled with dust and fumes from some road unworthy vehicles. Patience indeed is a virtue that all motorists must exhibit when the traffic jam hits the fleet of vehicles on one side of the dual carriageway from Circle to Avenor.

 The main cause of the gross indiscipline on this stretch is the practice by commercial bus drivers who stop practically in the middle of the road to pick and drop off passengers, notably during the busiest periods of the early hours of the morning and the rush hours after the close of work.

In that regard, the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service has not over the years relented in its efforts to maintain sanity on our roads and must be commended for their efforts at ensuring law and order on motorways. On that note, what I find mesmerising on this stretch are the dysfunctional traffic lights.

 Gradually, the traffic lights at Kokomlemle, Caprice and at the Alajo /Avenor Interchange are being replaced by uniformed policemen who are flagged by a section of equally competent men and women, predominantly dressed briskly and employed under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). These folks ultimately have the full backing of the law to direct traffic, check fake registered number plates and licenses, among others, which are all part of the daily routine. In the absence of the uniformed policemen, effective policing does not go on. Hence, some drivers flout the rules indiscriminately, since some of them do not recognise the powers which have been vested in the NYEP wardens.

 Beyond the enormous long-term problems which have plagued this stretch, the very noticeable and visible ones are mainly pedestrians jumping over the fence that separates the dual carriage road even though a foot bridge hangs up in the air with two pivots at the extreme end of the roads at the Kokomlemle traffic light just to ensure the safety of persons who wish to ferry across. However, some hitches have gone unnoticed. What has eluded a number of our hard-working law enforcers is the manner in which some commercial bus drivers put on their seatbelts. 
 With regards to the seatbelts, some stuck the belt into their seats; others just flip it over their heads when they take the wheel without the support the belt provides to lower part of the body primarily the waist line, and for this reason, your guess is as good as mine! The belt pins are not fixed into their sockets. The most puzzling aspect is that some drivers try all manner of means to only put on their seatbelts while a colleague driver hints them of the presence of an officer or when they see the law enforcers a few yards away.

A looming carnage, which is yet to hit the stretch and is only known to a section of the public (mainly the residents of Alajo), is the risk, torment, frustration and thought of being close to death when some commercial bus drivers go the extra mile and do the unthinkable. In an attempt to avoid the traffic jam that plagues the road in the evening and avoid the tarred narrow stretch which leads into Alajo on top of the interchange, some drivers take a quick right turn after Caprice onto an alley road, which many call rough roads. This rough road was created after the reconstruction of the big drainage that was built to prevent the annual flooding which storms Alajo, a suburb of Accra, during the rainy seasons. The alley road is bordered on one side with the wide-open drain and on the other by a host of make - shift stalls, houses and fitting shops. It also has an aging bridge that connects the Alajo Township.

I wished I could just figure out why some drivers, regardless of the risk of falling into this big gutter which holds mainly liquid and solid waste, still gamble with the lives of the loved ones of people who are mostly bread winners and school children, among others, and take this route without second thoughts said Michael Kissi, a resident in the vicinity. The overriding aim of why some drivers use this route is to conserve fuel and go back quickly and cart more passengers.

Even more appalling is the fact that drivers who ply this single alley stretch will have to drive at the extreme edge of the gutter incase there is a stationary or an oncoming vehicle, and pedestrians are not spared.

Also, can you fathom why sidewalks on some parts of this stretch are becoming make-shift washing bays and a sales point for a number of individuals who deal in motor cycles, bicycles among others? What are sidewalks meant for?

The Avenor interchange also runs a shift system right beneath it. Vehicular and other activities will have to come to a standstill when the train takes its turn beneath the bridge; hence, the most intriguing aspect is when some scrap dealers and hawkers take their seats back on the rails when the trains, which are sometimes overloaded do their routine crossovers to Nsawam. In the evening, it turns into a den for thieves who sit high up beneath the interchange on the parts which have been tiled using cement and stone chippings. Some of these thieves attack all manner of people, irrespective of age or gender. However, workers in the north-industrial area who also work on shift basis are more prone to such violent attacks. 
The booming level of commercial activities under the bridge right by the railway tracks leaves much to be desired. Therefore, should disaster strike, which we certainly hope and pray against, the government will have to play a key role in using its scarce resources to cater for accident victims and probably reconstruct the area.

Indeed, the short-term mechanisms for curtailing the diverse activities and problems on this stretch are not far-fetched. However, the government of the Republic of Ghana and the Accra metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and other law enforcing agencies will have to acquaint themselves with some of these flaws and recurring problems that are plaguing most of the roads in this country, because with time, they might just worsen.