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Considering the number of houses under construction and the stock of basic facilities that comes with it and the designs, one can safely conclude that the Upper West Region is one region that is growing at a very fast pace. The development of scattered residential accommodation, schools, offices, shops � all of modern architecture � has come to represent the region�s emergence onto the big stage of infrastructural development. All across Wa, the regional capital, as well as in the districts, new structures have sprung up and wiped away the era of mud houses into virtual history. Just like the situation in many fast-growing urban areas in the country, the rapid physical development in Wa has failed to take into consideration essential requirements such as roads, layouts and adjustments for future expansion. Because of the prevailing condition, the expansion is rather looking more like �developed slums� in view of the low quality of construction and the disorder. Compromised standards The clumsy arrangement of buildings and the lack of access roads represent just two of the problems that time and events might later reveal. Acknowledging the difficult moments that lie ahead for development planners in the region, the Chief Director of the Town and Country Planning Department in the Upper West Region, Mr Churchill Ken-Arthur, has observed that the situation needs to be arrested quickly in order to avoid the mistakes of other cities and towns. He believes that it would require commitment from the central government or the municipal and district assemblies to help reverse the trend. �We cannot have a well-planned city or town without the direct commitment from the central source of government. �For instance, it is the responsibility of the assemblies to lead the way by having in place an action plan that will take on board all interest groups who would make inputs into the overall planning of the areas. �The weight of their inputs would have to bear on having clear road layouts, sites for schools, hospitals and lorry parks, and the proper utilisation of land to accommodate future expansion of facilities should the need arise,� he stressed. Searching for answers At a recent meeting at the Wa Municipal Assembly, chieftains in the municipality, including traditional rulers, political figures and technocrats, were left scrambling for answers when a journalist questioned how come buildings had been jammed up without a clear plan in some of the developing suburbs. The journalist, apparently alarmed at the consequence of the prevailing situation in the event of a disaster such as fire outbreak, questioned the assembly�s intent to name streets and number houses when it had failed to provide proper supervision for planned development. The problem, as Mr Ken-Arthur diagnosed it, stemmed from the combined effect of a lack of co-oporation among landowners, developers, Town and Country Planning Department, the assemblies, Urban Roads/Roads and Highways and other stakeholders in the scheme of the development of physical structures. Clear violations But Naa Saliu Mahama Djongare, Chief of Dussie in the Wa municipality, accused the district assembly of failing to act even when there were clear violations in the way people were putting up buildings in the town. �We cannot look beyond the assembly in this matter. It has the power as an enforcement agency to ensure that people comply with the law. If people build on spaces reserved for a street or designated for some other social amenity, the assembly ought to act quickly to prevent the situation from getting out of hand,� he charged. He questioned the role of the Town and Country Planning Department, which, he said, had stood aloof even though it was its responsibility to see to the proper zoning and layout for physical structures. �It is not the fault of landowners and landlords, but rather the fault of the Town and Country Planning Department and the assembly. Acquiring a building permit in Wa and the other parts of the Upper West Region can take many years, and by the time a landlord would become aware, their lands would have been re-zoned by the Town and Country Planning Department. Because of this, lands that were originally reserved for streets, lorry parks, schools, hospitals and so on, are being developed for residential accommodation,� he alleged. Following encroachment on large portions of land acquired for the construction of the Wa Airport, the Dussie Naa asked: �Who failed to act when the land was being encroached upon?� Wa, a sprawling enclave Wa was once upon a time a small town that steadily grew to become a regional capital when the Upper West Region was carved out of the former Upper Region in the 1980s. The city is now a sprawling municipality with many growing suburbs. While old settlements such as Nayiri, Liman Yiri, Targa Yiri and Dondoli have crammed conditions, Bamahu, which only sprang up recently as a natural consequence to the establishment of the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies, is poorly planned and without proper access roads. For now, many settlements have fallen out of line and have become a problem for planners who find it difficult to name streets and number houses but the real challenge also lies in how to set boundaries in order that the areas can be properly laid out. The Municipal Co-ordinating Director, Mr Sayibu Yarifa, has given hint of a demarcation exercise the assembly intends to undertake, giving way to whispers on the corridors of the assembly of a massive demolition exercise soon. But considering the long established social order, it makes the gossip lame in the face of reality.