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THE FUTURE OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS IN GHANA (REVIEW)

(Human settlements and Service Deliver in Ghana Chapt. 7 page 362; edited by Prof. K. K. Adarkwa)

This chapter talks about the future of human settlement in Ghana. The writers have argued that, human
settlements are the center points of national development. And within these human settlement, service
delivery is paramount among the many functions of human settlements. The population of these
settlement is greatly rested on their levels of services. Therefore, in national development, distribution in
space by size is very important. In addition to this argument, the writers draw the attention of policy
makers and settlement planners to some pertinent issues that would help shape human settlements in the
future. They also provided recommendation for developing human settlements viable in all aspects of
human lives.

The Future of Human Settlements in Ghana (The Key Policy Issues)

Here, the writer uses examples from (Tawiah 1995 and UN 2012) to extract the key policy issues. The
writers emphasized that Ghanaians are increasingly moving to the urban centers and this, the writers
attributed it to Ghana’s status as an emerging market economy.

Urban Primacy and Lopsided Development

The argument in this section was that, Accra dominated as a single primate city until Kumasi joined the
race in the 21st century and it’s likely to continue for a long time before another city joins. Clearly, from
the writers’ point of view, this will have serious implication on national development. The writers
explained that because only Accra and Kumasi are competing in the primacy zone there would be
excessive skewed urbanization and when something like that happens, it counters production because
these cities large in population as they may be could not rearm all the large share of investment that is
poured into the development of these cities which in turns leads the national economy in jeopardy. Aside
the issue of Accra and Kumasi, there is an evidence of lopsided development in favor of southern cities
leaving the northern territory underdeveloped.

Peri-Urbanisation and the Emergence of Metropolitan Regions

The writers challenged policy makers and settlement planners to deal with the issue of peri-urbanization.
In the argument it was indicated that, when small towns and communities joins large cities, they create
administrative confusion where decision making involves several local authorities and stakeholders. In
the other aspects of the urban areas life, it becomes so difficult to ascertain. The writers cited examples
concerning the disputes that arose due to the complexity of peri-urbanism some voters had problems
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where to register and vote. Waste management becomes an issue because communities behind these
cities do not allow the waste to be dumped in their settlements.

I supported another argument put forth by the writers on the same peri-urbnaization that the
communities that joins the large cities joins them prematurely where most of their activities are farming
or agriculture. So when their farmlands are overturned for the reasons of urbanization, they are exposed
to the highly monetized urban economy and they would be able to integrate into such an economy.
Aberra and king 2005, Oduro 2010, Simon, McGregor and Nsiah-Gyabaah 2004 were the references to
buttress these arguments.

It was evident that peri-urbanization disagrees with our environment. Environmental issues like
destruction of water bodies and wetlands, nature reserves and other sensitive ecosystems are all
associated with peri-urbanism. Examples were cited from the encroachment of GAMA, Densu Ramsar
sites. These are highly recognized and important resource for Ghana and some international or West
African communities.

It is sad that these are not the only resource peri-urbanism is destroying but so many others across
Ghana; streams, lagoons, rivers, vegetation etc. so many lands have gone through the same process and a
hectares of lands have been ransacked and haphazardly developed.

Controlling Physical Development/ Land Use.

The concept employed in this section was focused on the physical expansion of settlements, the causes
and effects. In this section, readers were exposed to the links Peri-urbanism has with our physical
Development or Land use.

In the bid to enlighten readers especially settlement planners and policy makers on how to control
physical development uses the state of World population 2007 (UNFPA) to explain that low density
developments. They explained that low density development is a problem in most metropolitan regions
because of land speculation which has also contributed to leapfrogging. Due to this the outlying
settlements are haphazardly arranged and the spaces are inefficiently used. This has so many
environmental consequences, pollution and others. Also giving such settlements water, roads and
electricity becomes extremely difficult and costly.

Another problem is that, some areas are left unplanned and where there is even a plan it does not
conform to the layout of the settlement. This is affecting the environment and the physical developments
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since individuals do whatever they want without considering any Environment impacts on the people
living around.

They writers lamented on the fact that as these uncontrolled developments are rapidly taking roots in
Ghana, the legal control mechanisms are silent. Example is the Land Administration Project (LAP). The
LAP was to “develop a sustainable and well-functioning land administration system that is fair, efficient
and co-effective, decentralized so that it enhances Land tenure security”. The Land Administration
Project enlisted a few strategies to achieve this objective. The strategies involved the combination of
land policies and legislative instruments with customary law for a sustainable land administration. The
change in institutions and capacity building for effective improvement in the land administration;
efficiency, fairness and transparency way of preparing land documentation. And finally, to test for an
effective work done. But these have proven unfruitful over the years.

Housing, Infrastructure Provision and Municipal Service Delivery

This section simply argues that for the fast growing urban population, the government has not been able
to support it with housing infrastructure and other urban services. This has led to homelessness, slums,
squatter settlements and the effects are on large cities like Kumasi and Accra.

Urban Governance and Inter Jurisdiction Coordination

In this section the idea was simple, the MMDA’s are not able to coordinate and plan for their
settlements. The central government still interfere in their work. This does not make them independent
anymore to use inventive ways to plan for their settlement.

Globalization of Human Settlements

Globalization in simple terms refers to growth to a worldwide scale. The writers used the argument put
forth by dependency theorists to explained that from Colonial to post-colonial period there has been an
economic relationship established between developed (located at the core) and the developing nations
(at the periphery). This has made all countries economically interdependent. Settlements that are
advanced in technology, transportation, communication and growth size enjoys a lot more of the
attention of the global capital. This challenges Human settlement planners in Ghana to find innovative
ways to prepare Ghanaian cities and towns to also compete for full benefits from globalization. The
writers educated that, per the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1983,
Ghana have some cities that are fully participating in the process of globalization. Examples of these
cities are, Accra (International Airport), Tema (Harbour-cum-Industrial city, and entrepot for some
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landlocked areas in West Africa), Aflao also enjoy a lot of cross-border-trading activities and Kumasi
and Techiman Markets also serves countries within the sub region. But still the writers argued that
Ghana could still do a lot more than the above mentioned if other towns are to be developed with some
of the key infrastructural facilities. But we have concentrated over the years in Accra which has not
benefited the nation much.

Future Policy Direction

In order to have an effective plan, we must have a direction for our plans; in other words focus areas. So
this section enumerated quite a number of them but two were highlighted.

The first was to allow the settlement do its own thing in terms of growth and other aspects as was done
in centuries ago but it was realized that it would be very beneficial now but we are doing no good to the
future generation. The second one was just an opposite of this where the intervention of professionals
are required to direct growth of settlements to better suit the conditions and circumstances at hand in any
given point in time.

Developing a Spatially Balanced Hierarchy of Human Settlements

As has been appreciated from previous explanations, Ghana is not balanced in spatial terms so for
Ghana to achieve socio-economic development, there must be an upgrading of some settlements in order
to in order to split population and achieve varying roles which these settlements would play to contribute
the economy or national development.

The writers made a very sensitive proposal of creating Zonal development nodes (Tamale, Kumasi and
Secondi-Takoradi). These would be second to Accra which be ahead as the nations’ first ranked
settlement and service delivery. There would be regional development nodes (Sunyani, Ho, Bolgatanga,
Koforidua and Cape Coast) the third level settlements. There is also going to be included three
strategically positioned towns (Enchi, Dambai and Damongo) which will participate as regional
development nodes. The fourth node would be the District capitals and other larger settlements which
would serve as service centres in their respective jurisdictions. The remaining settlements would also be
looked as the last level settlements and services would be according their respective functions;
agriculture, periodic market centres etc. I had a problem with the act of leaving Techiman out of the
whole development nodes process because Techiman has got a strong market potential that if upgraded
as a development node would help the nation a lot. Apart from this all other aspect of the whole process
is good.
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Promoting Cities as Self Sustaining Engines of Economic Development

There are a lot of problems facing our cities today and the enormity of these problems is rapidly
becoming a nightmare for Ghanaians. The writers therefore challenged cities administrators, mayors,
MMDA’s and traditional leaders to take their cities from the shield of the central government. They
should be able to develop their own settlements in accordance to the conditions there and to be able to
compete and coordinate with other settlements. The central government should also allow Settlement
authorities to devise innovative ways to plan to suit their respective jurisdictions. On the aspect of
financing, District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and other funds should be left to the MMDA’s to
do the allocations per local priorities.

Developing a Framework for Long Term Metropolitan Planning

In order for metropolitan areas to contribute to the global economy and serves as a catalyst for
sustainable development local authorities alone cannot handle but in a manner where the metropolis
would further be divided into multiple planning areas in order to account for municipal and community
level planning areas. As advised by the writers, the coordination between the local authorities and the
MMDA’s should be effective enough to design short, medium and long term plans for the metropolis
and should be able to alter where necessary.

Currently, the institutional framework consisting of the Ministry of Environment Science and
Technology through the Town and Country Planning is doing a lot of developmental activities at all
levels of planning; some of which includes Spatial Development frameworks (SDF’s), structure
Plans(SP’s), and detailed Local Plans (LP’s). A similar initiative is happening in the Greater Kumasi sub
region supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), RCC-Ashanti, MEST-TCPD,
Local Government and Rural Development, MOFEP and the NDPC. Source (JICA Ghana Office 2013).

In conclusion, Settlements hold the lives of its citizenry. Therefore the development of the settlement in
any form should be greatly considered by spatial planners and policy makers in order to prevent squatter
settlements, slums, decays etc. For the record, there is a wide range of settlement developmental
problems in Ghana especially between the north and the south which has impede on the nation’s socio-
economic development. This problems needs an immediate attention and effective mechanisms to
sustain the settlements.