Slums gradually engrossing Twin-City

Kwesimintsim, July 7, GNA - Cooperative Housing International (CHF), a non-governmental organization, on Thursday, said about one third of the population of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis lived in slums.

The study explained that the growth in infrastructure in the metropolis was partly because of the oil find with its influx of people from other parts of the country.

This has resulted in inadequate social amenities and poor service delivery, he said.

Mr. Abudu Sallam Momaud, CHF Project Coordinator, was speaking at an exhibition mounted by the NGO in the Western Region to showcase their achievements since the introduction of their Slum Communities Achieving Liveable Environments with Urban Partners (SCALE-UP) programme.

He said residents in slums had limited access to water and little or no access to sanitary facilities. 93Such households spend significant amounts of time and money to access unsanitary toilet facilities and obtain water at inflated prices," he added.

Mr. Momaud noted that CHF, as part of its interventions, implemented the SCALE-UP project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the overall goal of improving conditions in urban slums.

The SCALE-UP project, he noted, was to specifically strengthen the capacities of slum dwellers, increase income and asset generation opportunities and improve their living environment, among others.

The first phase of the SCALE-UP project was implemented in the Accra and the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assemblies to address critical gaps in access to water and sanitation services for the urban poor.

Mr. Mamoud noted that the programme had so far equipped the youth in the area with employable skills, improved the micro-businesses of women, and given technical and financial assistance to some slum dwellers to improve their housing. They are also supplied with domestic and commercial water and provided with door-to-door waste management services.