Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri

Mr Speaker, there comes a defining moment in the life of every nation when progress can no longer be measured by the grandeur of its skylines or the length of its highways, but by the harmony it achieves between humanity and nature.
Ghana stands today at that crossroads. Our cities, once symbols of vitality and promise, are straining under the weight of their own success. The streets of Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, and Tamale throb with energy and ambition, yet beneath this vitality lies a deepening crisis of congestion, pollution, and urban neglect. Across the world, cities have become the beating hearts of national economies, magnets of opportunity, innovation, and growth. Ghana is no exception. From Accra to Kumasi, Tamale to Takoradi, our cities are expanding at a pace that outstrips our ability to manage their environmental, social, and infrastructural demands.
Mr Speaker, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (2021), over 56.7 per cent of Ghanaians now live in urban areas, up from 50.9 per cent in 2010. By 2030, that number is projected to surpass 60 per cent, placing immense pressure on land, water, air, and housing. While cities contribute over 70 per cent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), they also generate more than 12,000 tonnes of solid waste daily, of which only about 70 per cent is collected and even less is properly treated. The World Bank (2020) estimates that poor sanitation, pollution, and waste mismanagement together cost Ghana nearly 3 per cent of GDP annually, a staggering economic loss that directly undermines public health, productivity, and tourism.
Mr Speaker, urban air quality, particularly in Accra, has reached critical levels. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA, 2023) attributes about 40 per cent of Accra’s Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) air pollution to road transport emissions. This makes respiratory diseases among the top five causes of outpatient visits in the Greater Accra Region. As Ghana’s urban population swells, unregulated vehicular emissions, congested markets, unmanaged waste, and disappearing green spaces are eroding the livability of our cities. If this trajectory continues unchecked, by 2040, Accra could host more than 7 million people, living amid worsening traffic congestion, frequent flooding, rising temperatures, and declining air quality. The cost to the national economy, and to the wellbeing of future generations, will be incalculable.
Learning from Global Examples: Pathways to Urban Renewal
Mr Speaker, Ghana is not alone in facing these challenges. Many nations have walked similar paths and charted transformative blueprints that now serve as beacons of possibility. Kigali, Rwanda stands as a leading African example. Once plagued by disorganised growth, Kigali implemented a strict urban master plan (2020/2050) anchored in sanitation enforcement, efficient waste collection, and green public spaces. Today, Kigali is recognised as one of Africa’s cleanest and most orderly capitals, attracting tourism and sustainable investment. Its success lies in political will, community participation, and citywide enforcement, three ingredients Ghana can replicate within its metropolitan and municipal assemblies.
Mr Speaker, in Singapore, Asia’s urban miracle rests on meticulous planning and integration of green design into the urban fabric. Its “City in Nature” strategy under the Green Plan 2030 has increased urban greenery, expanded public transport electrification, and promoted “15-minute neighbourhoods” where residents can live, work, and relax within walking distance. Cities in Ghana, particularly Accra and Kumasi, can adopt this approach by legislating mandatory green quotas in new developments, incentivising rooftop gardens, and linking urban planning with public health and climate action. Mr Speaker, Copenhagen, Denmark offers Europe’s most enduring model of sustainable urban mobility. By investing in protected cycling lanes and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, the city has made cycling account for over 35 per cent of all daily trips.
Air pollution levels have dropped dramatically, and public satisfaction with urban life remains among the highest in the world. For Ghana, this translates into the urgent need to create non-motorised transport corridors and bus rapid transit systems to reduce congestion, improve health, and cut carbon emissions.
Contextualising Ghana’s Path Forward
The solutions to Ghana’s urban crisis are within reach, practical, measurable, and achievable within coordinated policy leadership and public accountability. First and foremost, greening our cities must become a cornerstone of national urban policy. Metropolitan assemblies can increase tree canopy over 10-15 per cent within the next decade and reserve at least 12 per cent of new development areas for green and open spaces. Pocket parks and river buffer zones can transform flood-prone areas into ecological assets and also serve as public recreation spaces.
Mr Speaker, secondly, Ghana must transition toward clean and inclusive urban transport. This requires modernising trotro fleets, piloting electric buses on major corridors like Kasoa-Accra and Adum-Sofo Line, and expanding pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Cleaner mobility will directly reduce air pollution, improve productivity, and align Ghana’s transport sector with its Nationally Determined Contributions (the NDCs), under the Paris Agreement.
Mr Speaker, furthermore, we must decongest public spaces such as markets and lorry terminals through structured spatial planning. Establishing multi-level market complexes, recognising trading zones and scheduling delivery hours can ease congestion while protecting livelihoods. Modern terminals at the city peripheries, supported by feeder buses, can further declutter the urban core. Finally, proper waste management is indispensable. Ghana should move from collection-only systems to a circular waste economy with recycling cooperatives, material recovery facilities, and composting plants that create green jobs for our safeguarding environment. Achieving some 50 per cent diversion from landfill by 2030 is both feasible and economically smart.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, the future of Ghana’s cities will not be determined by chance, but by the courage of our choices. If we build without foresight, we will inherit congestion, pollution, and decay. But if we build with a purpose guided by ecological wisdom, justice, and innovation, we will create cities that breathe, move, and heal. Let us, therefore, chart a bold national agenda for green, healthy, and inclusive cities. And that harmonises economic ambition with environmental stewardship and transforms Ghana’s urban spaces into symbols of resilience and pride. Like Kigali, Singapore, and Copenhagen, our success will depend not on the size of our budgets, but on the strength of our vision and the discipline of our governance. Ghana stands ready for this transformation.
The time to green our cities and secure the well-being of generations to come is now. The destiny of our cities is in the destiny of our nation. The choices we make today will echo far beyond this generation. We can continue to build without conscience, piling concrete upon concrete. Or we can build with wisdom, creating cities that reflect the balance between progress and preservation, ambition and accountability.
History teaches us that cities are not merely fiscal spaces. They are a moral statement about who we are and what we value. Kigali has shown that discipline and civic pride can transform a city once burdened by its past into a beacon of order and cleanliness. Singapore demonstrates that foresight and integrated planning can turn a small island into one of the world’s most liveable urban spaces. Copenhagen reminds us that sustainability and modernity coexist. That clean air and economic vitality are not opposites but partners.
Mr Speaker, Ghana, too, can chart this path. If we green our streets, reform our transport, manage our waste wisely, and plan our settlement with human dignity, let this House and this generation be remembered as those who refused to accept decay as destiny. Let us be remembered as the sewers who planted trees of foresight, built corridors of equity, and designed cities of hope. For in the final measure, the true greatness of a nation is not found in its monument of steel, but in the liveability of cities and the sustainability of its own.
I thank you, Mr Speaker.

Hon Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah
Salaga South

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, let me start by commending my Colleague, the Minority Chief Whip, for this very brilliant and deep Statement that he has made today. I would confess, that some of the issues he has raised in the Statement have agitated my mind for a very long time. I think I never really sat down to put pen to paper, and I want to commend him for that. The Statement is timely, and if we listen, the better for all of us.
Mr Speaker, my Colleague made references to Kigali and Singapore. I heard him also make reference to other civilisations. As we speak, I am happy that Hon Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, is in the Chamber today. Recently, I was with her in Addis Ababa, and the trip took us from our hotel to the African Union (AU) headquarters, we talked about nothing but town development. We discussed why we could not do what they are doing in Addis Ababa.
Mr Speaker, I had been there five years before, and when I went there this time, I did not recognise the city. They are building the city, and they are conscious of the road; there are about three or four lane roads in Addis, with walkways where pedestrians can also walk, and maybe she can help with the measurements, but I saw that the walkways were equal to one road. It is not these corner things that we do in this country. Space! And we saw couples holding hands and walking, and we saw Ethiopians walking in their city.
Mr Speaker, we do not walk in this country because there is nowhere to walk. If we attempt to walk from Afrikiko to 37 or in front of the Presidency, a car will knock us down because there are no pavements, and street hawkers have taken the road, and so no one is thinking about the other person. It cannot all be about vehicles. We need the space. Mr Speaker, the other thing we saw, consciously, is the Median. I used to call it an island, until Hon Gizella told me it is called the Median. Trees are planted in the median to provide shade and protect the environment.
In Ghana, we put concrete and pavement stones, and the next thing, you go there—My cousin has money to pull his wheelbarrow, and he is selling slippers, toothpaste, and toothbrushes on the road—in the middle of the road, in this country. It only happens in this country. Now they have even upgraded it. They lay out the slippers in different shades and colours. Every time I drive and I see that scene, I ask myself, so if I see a slipper that I want, am I going to park in the middle of the road and get down and walk, or will I now find space outside the road, park and cross? So, there is just something wrong with us and something wrong with our planning. The earlier we admit it, the better.
Mr Speaker, in Dubai, in the Midian, there are trees growing, a desert country. We are here; we have fertile lands but we are so quick to pull down a tree when we are building a house. At the least opportunity, we pull down a tree, and we build a house. What are our environmentalists doing? What is the Forestry Commission doing? In the United Kingdom, you cannot pull down a tree until you have permission from the local council. And you have to pay. They will examine the condition and make sure that indeed, the tree needs to come down, and you pay for the felling of the tree. We need to begin to look at—When we speak, we are told that we have all the laws in this country.
So, we ask yourselves, where are the laws? Did we make the laws for the shelves, or we made the laws so we can become better? Mr Speaker, we were in Kigali, and we found that the Local Government Ministry is the ministry that runs the country. Every sector has to send their budget through the Local Government Ministry. The Local Government Ministry has to ensure that their programmes and activities align with the needs of the local people. They then forward it to the Finance Ministry before the budgets are approved. Mr Speaker, what is the story in this country? In this country, I do not think anyone even takes the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs into account when we are developing programmes and activities in our districts.
Thank you very much, Mr Annoh Dompreh. Let us get talking and let us ask for action. We do not have to go and reinvent the wheel. It is not rocket science; it is just trying to copy. I like to use that word. Just go and copy what they are doing there and come and do it here.

Hon Fred Kwesi Agbenyo
Guan

Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement that was ably made by the Minority Chief Whip.
The issue of health in our country is a serious one and has been discussed on several platforms. I believe almost all of us here are getting fatigued discussing this particular subject matter. As the earlier speaker said, nations across the world have managed their communities and planned their communities very well. All of us travel across the world and we see how they have managed their cities. I am still wondering why it is so difficult for us as a people to just adopt and implement same in our country.
Mr Speaker, waste management even in the national capital itself is a problem. You go to the so-called elite communities, East Legon and the rest, and then you see dustbins in front of people’s houses, and for days, nobody has come to pick their garbage from the house. It is something we see across every place.
So, Mr Speaker, I think that we need to refer this particular Statement to the appropriate institutions, so we try to find a lasting solution to the issue of waste management. Now, one would argue that Accra Central and most parts of Accra are old cities, so we cannot do much about it. The question is the new settlements that are coming up, what is the town and Country Planning Department doing? This is because the expectation would have been that before people even moved to a new area, the road infrastructure would have been developed, water would have been extended to the place, electricity and water would have been there, so that the city is well planned.
Unfortunately, even the new settlements that are coming up, the same problems that we are facing with the old ones are the same that we are experiencing there too. So, we sit back and ask ourselves, who is in charge of the country? Who is in charge of the city planning? Are the people really working, and why are we paying them if they are not doing the right thing?
Mr Speaker, we can cite examples across the world of how nations have developed. If we refuse to implement our by-laws and refuse to punish people, and that we wait to occasionally come and make Statements like this and leave it at that, we are not going to see any improvement in this country.
Mr Speaker, we have been doing afforestation every now and then, and sometimes we wonder. If we are constructing roads, we would expect that just around 37 Military Hospital, the manner in which they were able to leave trees in the middle of the road, we would do the same in some other places, yet we put the trees down at the least thing. We would do the same in some other places, yet we put the trees down at the least thing.
So, Mr Speaker, once again, thank you very much for the opportunity. Let me also thank the maker of the Statement.

Hon Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama
Walewale

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I would also like to commend the consistency of the Minority Chief Whip with which he is pursuing this matter of urban planning.
In the last meeting of this Parliament, a similar Statement was presented by the respected Minority Chief Whip, highlighting the matter in issue and bringing our attention to the need for us to do something about how we plan our cities.
Mr Speaker, I want to associate myself with the various speakers on this matter and with the examples of cities that they have highlighted. He mentioned Kigali and Singapore, but I would want to add another city, which we should actually add to our reflection on how they have been able to develop, Mr Speaker, Curitiba. Curitiba is a southern Brazilian Curitiba, C-u-r-i-t-i-b-a. It is a southern Brazilian city.
Mr Speaker, some years ago in urban development planning, this was a case every student in urban planning would learn on, how the urban regeneration was done in Curitiba. At the heart of their development initiative was what they called Integrated Sustainable Planning of the city, where they factor in natural development into their development programme. It was anchored on what they called the Radial Linear Branching Pattern.
What they basically did was that they directed development along transportation corridors, and once development was directed along transportation corridors, they were able to plan their city. They were also able to introduce what they called the Green Initiative, which the respected Member for Salaga South, also highlighted why we should not be in a hurry to pull down trees in our haste to develop.
Mr Speaker, they also introduced what is called the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Mr Speaker, we are dealing with Metro Mass Transit, Aayalolo Bus Transit, we are now introducing electric bus, but we have not been able to consistently manage this transportation system. Recently, we attempted creating dedicated lanes for the Bus Rapid Transit system.
Mr Speaker, if we take the Accra and Nsawam roads, those lanes were created, but they have become eyesores now. They have virtually been encroached, and public buses that are not supposed to be using these lanes are now using those lanes. Once we make attempts to develop our cities along the lines of the developed countries, and the case studies we have highlighted, why are we not able to sustain them, Mr Speaker? Is it the culture that we are not yet used to that system? We must begin to reorient ourselves towards how we can make this part of our conscience.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would want to say that in this particular initiative, if we prioritise social equity as the baseline for urban re-planning or urban regeneration, we will be able to get it right. The poor man does not understand what it means to be orderly, because at the heart of it, is survival. If they were going to break the laws and be insensitive about the environment in order to survive, they would. But once we factor social re-engineering and social equity into the urban planning process, I am sure we will— Mr Speaker, I want to thank the maker of the Statement and the contributors for this brilliant Statement.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

Hon Hamza Adam
Kumbungu

Thank you so much, Mr Speaker, for indulging me and to thank the maker of the Statement for a very comprehensive and detailed submission.
Mr Speaker, the planning aspect has been detailed and discussed by Colleagues. An important aspect that I think that I may want to address is the waste aspect of that. Solid waste is a serious menace we have to deal with as a country. If you walk in the communities, you will see mountains of solid waste and the waste does not occur in a vacuum. It is as a result of the attitude of the individuals, which we have to tackle head on as a country.
Aside the nuisance that the solid waste brings, we also have a lot of diseases that are coming from the waste; Malaria, typhoid, and some other diseases are occurring as a result of the waste. There is also another dimension to it. The solid waste we see also generates greenhouse gas, which is methane, a more potent, about 86 times more than that of carbon dioxide. And so, it is a dangerous greenhouse gas generated by the solid waste. It is important that we look at it as a country and see how we will manage solid waste.
In conclusion, as a country, it is important to strengthen the bylaws and the laws to work in this country. Because I know that our laws have comprehensively captured how we will deal with those who drop waste anyhow but enforcement has been a challenge. Let us look at it as a country on how we will ensure that we deal with those who flout the regulations.
Mr Speaker, the other thing is sensitisation. We have to step up our advocacy drive to ensure that we do a lot of communication to sensitise people on the dangers of dropping solid anyhow, so that we can deal with it as a country.
Mr Speaker, just a minute to conclude, the other aspect is technology. We have to look at how we will introduce technology in managing our waste. The issue of reuse and recycling is a matter that we have to look at. Finally, EPA is decentralising, in their bid to managing the waste and so they are trying to widen their presence by introducing district offices of EPA to deal with this.
I thank you for the opportunity.