Quality of life in Ghanaian cities declining

A study by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has established that quality of live in urban areas are not the best .

It has also indicated that accountability from duty bearers in cities are horrible.

The CDD findings further asserts that democratic means whereby public expresses their opinion has to be strengthened in order to save democracy.

This was disclosed when the CDD-Ghana held its maiden public engagement exercise under the Ghana Cities Monitoring (GCM)
Funded by the Hewlett Foundation, the Ghana Cities Monitor (GCM) is an easy-to-use tool for evaluating the provision of essential services and infrastructure necessary for the cities’ economic, social, and environmental well-being as well as the quality of life of city residents.

The project seeks to stimulate evidence-driven discussions on urban governance and the delivery of goods and services within the cities.

Carried in 23 cities ,where Accra ,Kumasi and Temale Metroplitan assemblies were compared to each other, the GCM exercise covered components such as education , health , social services ,economic infrastructure , communication , electricity , water and housing.

Among three Metropolitan assemblies, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) emerged first ,scoring 56.1 % out of 100%, followed by Accra and Temale Municipal Assembly.

Speaking to the media , Gildfred Asiamah , Research Analyst at the CDD-Ghana , disclosed that if one compares the quality of life of these Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies , it is not up to even half .

“ If it is 41.6% out of 100%, then there is more room for improvement for the city which emerged as winner. There is more to that will improve the quality of life in such areas.

The municipalities in Ashanti region managed to be among the first ten, but if you compare the ratings , some of the issues are concerning .”

According to him,issues which had a positive remark are electricity ,with reliability and affordability being key issue.

On water , Gildfred Asiamah underscored that frequency, reliability , accessibility and affordability are also issues which associated with water supply .

He told the media that in the last three years’ exercise of GCM , it came to fore that accountability from power bearers in cities were down.

The highest city score , according to the CDD-Ghana was 14% out of 100%,bemoaning that it is very concerning.

“ Accountability from authorities was egregiously low ,which is very concerning . In all the cities where this exercise was carried out, none of them had 14% out of 100% ,including Kumasi and others.”
Asiamah further disclosed that these areas of concerned which has to be addressed are democratic credentials.

“The areas of challenges which has to be addressed are democracy –how do we make sure that masses express their opinion in a democratic way?”, he asked.

On employment and skill training , the CDD authority underscored the indexes emanated from this sector were so down,saying “All the cities ,including Kumasi none of the cities chalked a quarter out of 100% which is also concerning.”

Gildfred disclosed that education and health also fared bad in the exercise.

According to him, if we Ghanaians wants Ghana to develop ,where everyone’s opinion matters coupled with policies that are beneficial to the people , then a lot must be done for people to get involve in governance.

“If a lot of people are coming to our city and we are unable to provide quality education ,good health and social protection , which will serve as a cushion to fall in an even of disaster ,then the quality of life in the city is down and dangerous.”

On his part , Prof. Paul Sarfo Mensah, a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) lauded the CDD-Ghana for embarking on such an exercise.

Prog Mensah said :“It is a very good attempt. We all want to support . Our cities need enhancement. You need to have credible data to work otherwise the resources that you are investing may not yield the desired results that we want.”

According to him, going out there to bring out these results indicate how these 23 cities ,especially the metropolitan cities performed from the assessment of their own citizenry on those six components ,including economic component , safety , disaster management ,social service and so on.

Prof.Sarfo,however called for inclusion of all regional capital in the research to for a good baseline which can be built upon.

Earlier ,the Chief Executive of KMA ,Samuel Payne noted Kumasi would benefit enormously from the GCM .

The Central District of Kumasi ,according to Sam Payne, has a population to close of five hundred thousand ,adding that the assembly manages a such huge numbers with a minimum influx of more than 200,000 people coming in and leaving every single day.