They said although the ultimate responsibility of providing open spaces and parks lay with the district assemblies, land earmarked for such spaces had been re-zoned for other purposes.

 

The groups are architects, engineers and town planners.

 

Open spaces are designated as public parks for recreational, relaxation and other social purposes.

 

Speaking at a mid-term general meeting of the Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) on the theme; “The Public, Architects and Open Spaces”, the President of the GIA, Mr Joseph Hayford, said “public parks are for the community and their maintenance and protection fall with the district assemblies or the municipal authorities.

 

Mr Hayford attributed the lack of open spaces to the inability of the assemblies to preserve them and urged the public to question the authorities if they found that public spaces were being used for other purposes and also help in raising funds to maintain the spaces.

 

Disconnect 

 

The Director of Town and Country Planning, Mr Kofi Danquah Osei, said the greatest challenge of his outfit was that there was a disconnect in the implementation of the plans they made because the district assemblies did not appreciate their work.

 

“Until we get them to understand these things we will not make any progress,” he stated.

 

He urged professionals in the building environment to “find a solution to our one major hurdle” by making the political appointees understand why open spaces must be left.  

 

The President-elect of the Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE), Mr Kweku Boampong, said “today open spaces in our cities are not anything to write home about. Walkways, cycle ways and other places of convenience have been taken over by hawkers and we lack very dignified open spaces.”

 

He said Tema, which could boast of dignified open spaces in each of the communities today had had them re-zoned or taken over by hawkers.

 

Stressing the importance of open spaces, he quoted Ezekiel 48:17 of the Bible which reads “the city shall have open spaces.” Mr Boampong also said the United Nations biodiversity requirement was that each human being should have at least 12m2 of a green area.

 

Delivering the keynote address on the topic; “Greening them all: An architect’s vision  of open spaces”, Prof Henri Adziri Wellington of the Department of Archeology, University of Ghana, said that traditional authorities, policy makers, politicians, market women and porters, had all contributed to the littering and destruction of open spaces through their reckless sense of stewardship.

 

Mr Boampong described open spaces as opportunities to enjoy nature and socialise, saying that open spaces were needed to allow men to interact with nature.

 

Non-involvement of local architects

 

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Hayford said just a negligible number of local architects were involved in government funded projects.

 

He said the law assigned certain types of buildings and projects to be designed by architects but this was most times not adhered to. 

 

My Hayford stated that foreign consultants also came in because most of the projects were funded through external sources, although the way they came in was at variance to the law.

 

He said the GIA was therefore taking steps to enforce the right procedure, which includes the registration of all foreign architects who will work in Ghana, so that local architects would be able to bring their skills to the projects.