Stop locating places by "the blue kiosk"
Arku Jasmine
Editorials
Spatial planning in the country is in one big mess. There is hardly any human settlement in the country with complete street names and property numbers.
Just ask any resident of any community in the country, especially the cities, to direct you to any location and you will get confused before the end of the encounter.
That conversation between the resident and the visitor seeking direction to an area will go thus: “Take this road, turn right, go straight and turn at a big mango tree. Then just follow the road to a blue kiosk where akpeteshie is sold and ask for the person you are looking for.”
But elsewhere, the situation is different. Even in neighbouring Nigeria, it is easy to use street names and property numbers to locate the people you are looking for.
Some time ago in Accra and other regional capitals, the well-planned suburbs such as the Airport Residential Area, North Ridge, Cantonments, Awudome Estates, North Kaneshie, Mamprobi, Chorkor, as well as Ridge and Ash Town in Kumasi, had street names and property numbers.
Presently, those well planned areas are also becoming slums, with containers, food vendors and squatters disturbing the aesthetic beauty of our cities.
As for the emerging communities, the least said about them, the better, because the statutory authorities such as the district assemblies, the Town and Country Planning Department and the Lands Commission have conspired to allow developers to put up structures at unauthorised places.
Well-planned settlements with street names and property numbers offer easy access to houses by vehicles and fire engines in times of fire disaster. It is also easy to direct visitors and security personnel and others in case of distress, such as robbery attacks.
The Daily Graphic thinks well-planned communities provide opportunities for the utility companies to extend their services to the people at little cost.
A functional street naming and property numbering system also aids the banks to extend credit to their customers with little risk as their customers can easily be traced in case of default.
Last but not least, this system helps waste management companies deploy their trucks to collect waste from the various homes.
The programme to give names to all streets and numbers to property is long overdue and the Daily Graphic hopes that the government will crack the whip on district chief executives (DCEs) who fail to carry out the directive by the President.
We are happy that the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has begun the street naming ad property numbering project.
It is our expectation that all the assemblies will embrace the exercise to enable the country to have a reliable national address system to facilitate development efforts.
The assemblies should make the project one of their priority assignments to assist the assemblies to plan and manage services better for the public.
The Daily Graphic appeals to chiefs and the people to co-operate with the assemblies to achieve the objectives enshrined in the street naming and property numbering system.
The project will achieve the desired objective if the assemblies compel developers of estates in new areas to conform to modern urban planning that can help the assemblies also collect data for revenue collection.
Our assemblies are unable to generate enough revenue now because of the lack of a database on property in their areas of jurisdiction for property rate collection.
The Daily Graphic thinks this project will help the assemblies generate enough revenue to aid their developmental activities if the project does not suffer the same fate as other national endeavours that were just flashes in the pan.
Just ask any resident of any community in the country, especially the cities, to direct you to any location and you will get confused before the end of the encounter.
That conversation between the resident and the visitor seeking direction to an area will go thus: “Take this road, turn right, go straight and turn at a big mango tree. Then just follow the road to a blue kiosk where akpeteshie is sold and ask for the person you are looking for.”
But elsewhere, the situation is different. Even in neighbouring Nigeria, it is easy to use street names and property numbers to locate the people you are looking for.
Some time ago in Accra and other regional capitals, the well-planned suburbs such as the Airport Residential Area, North Ridge, Cantonments, Awudome Estates, North Kaneshie, Mamprobi, Chorkor, as well as Ridge and Ash Town in Kumasi, had street names and property numbers.
Presently, those well planned areas are also becoming slums, with containers, food vendors and squatters disturbing the aesthetic beauty of our cities.
As for the emerging communities, the least said about them, the better, because the statutory authorities such as the district assemblies, the Town and Country Planning Department and the Lands Commission have conspired to allow developers to put up structures at unauthorised places.
Well-planned settlements with street names and property numbers offer easy access to houses by vehicles and fire engines in times of fire disaster. It is also easy to direct visitors and security personnel and others in case of distress, such as robbery attacks.
The Daily Graphic thinks well-planned communities provide opportunities for the utility companies to extend their services to the people at little cost.
A functional street naming and property numbering system also aids the banks to extend credit to their customers with little risk as their customers can easily be traced in case of default.
Last but not least, this system helps waste management companies deploy their trucks to collect waste from the various homes.
The programme to give names to all streets and numbers to property is long overdue and the Daily Graphic hopes that the government will crack the whip on district chief executives (DCEs) who fail to carry out the directive by the President.
We are happy that the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has begun the street naming ad property numbering project.
It is our expectation that all the assemblies will embrace the exercise to enable the country to have a reliable national address system to facilitate development efforts.
The assemblies should make the project one of their priority assignments to assist the assemblies to plan and manage services better for the public.
The Daily Graphic appeals to chiefs and the people to co-operate with the assemblies to achieve the objectives enshrined in the street naming and property numbering system.
The project will achieve the desired objective if the assemblies compel developers of estates in new areas to conform to modern urban planning that can help the assemblies also collect data for revenue collection.
Our assemblies are unable to generate enough revenue now because of the lack of a database on property in their areas of jurisdiction for property rate collection.
The Daily Graphic thinks this project will help the assemblies generate enough revenue to aid their developmental activities if the project does not suffer the same fate as other national endeavours that were just flashes in the pan.