The Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyire and Minority Chief Whip, Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has made a passionate appeal to government to prioritize sustainable urban development through targeted investments in greening Ghana’s cities.
Delivering a statement on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh emphasized that the transformation of Ghana’s urban landscape must go beyond beautification to focus on resilience, climate adaptation, and improved public health.
He called for Parliament’s support to back what he described as a “national investment in the dignity, health, and prosperity of urban Ghanaians.”
Citing projections from the Ghana Statistical Service, the MP highlighted that more than 58% of Ghana’s population now resides in urban areas—a figure expected to rise to over 65% by 2040.
He warned that without sustainable planning, this rapid urban growth will continue to exacerbate climate vulnerabilities, biodiversity loss, and public health risks.
“Cities like Accra and Keta are facing severe threats from coastal erosion, tidal flooding, and rising sea levels,” he noted. “We are losing approximately 1.3 meters of coastline annually, largely due to both natural forces and the destruction of protective ecosystems like mangroves and wetlands.”
Referencing research from the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, the MP decried the loss of over 40% of Kumasi’s tree cover in the past three decades—once dubbed Ghana’s ‘Garden City.’
Similar environmental stress, including rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and poor waste management, are emerging in fast-growing hubs like Sunyani and Tamale.
With the theme, “Greening Ghanaian Cities: A Nature-Based Financing and Planning Proposal for Urban Sustainability and Resilience”, Hon Annoh-Dompreh’s outlined four core components of the proposal to the government.
Among these were adopting UNEP’s 10-element NbS framework to guide municipal development, building the technical and financial capacity of city authorities, integrating local government planning and budgeting systems and aligning urban strategies with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11 and 13, as well as the Global Biodiversity Framework.
For coastal cities like Accra and Keta, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh recommended greenbelt restoration, mangrove rehabilitation, and the introduction of blue infrastructure such as bioswales and permeable pavements to reduce flooding and restore ecosystems. He also proposed involving local fishing communities in afforestation and recycling initiatives to create green jobs.
For inland cities like Kumasi, Sunyani, and Tamale, he advocated for urban forestry, community food forests, and rainwater harvesting. He noted that Tamale’s peri-urban areas could support women-led sustainable agriculture cooperatives, enhancing food security and livelihoods—an approach successfully tested in Burkina Faso and Uganda with FAO support.
To institutionalize these reforms, he proposed three key actions, mandate nature-based budget tagging using COFOG codes to improve transparency in environmental finance, establish a National Urban NbS Pilot Fund in collaboration with development partners and academia and engage the private sector through green public-private partnerships and incentives such as tax reliefs for green buildings.
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh stressed that within two years of implementation, cities should be able to report measurable progress—such as hectares of restored ecosystems, number of green jobs created, and improvements in public environmental services.
“The time for reactive policies is over,” he declared. “Our cities must be proactive, people-centered, and ecologically anchored. We have the global frameworks and tools; what remains is the political will to act decisively.”
He reiterated the call to action, stating, “Let this Parliament be remembered as the one that planted the seeds for greener, stronger, and more equitable Ghanaian cities.”
Source: Felix Nyaaba/expressnewsghana.com