Government through the Ministry of Works and Housing has allocated 1.5 million GHS as seed money for the establishment of the Ghana Hydro Fund.
The Fund is expected to fuel the operations of the Ghana Hydro Authority in addressing the housing and hydrology challenges in the country.
Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister for Works and Housing, launched the flFund at a three-day stakeholder conference dubbed: “Built Environment National Conference on Housing and Hydrology (BENCHH) 2024”.
The three-day conference was organised to bring experts together, including built environment experts, real estate stakeholders, hydrology specialists, agencies, regulators, private sector players, clients and local Assemblies to deliberate on issues and act collectively to discuss Ghana’s housing and hydro challenges and to find opportunities in addressing them.
Mr Nkrumah said the public works, housing, and hydrology sectors had faced challenges in addressing the housing deficit and hydro challenges in the country, particularly due to poor funding.
He said the continuous annual flooding occurrence in many communities across the country was a big challenge and that the national flood control programme had had limited impact in adequately tackling the challenges.
“In the Greater Accra Region for example, our data shows that only two per cent of the drainage channels that require concrete works had received attention. Climate Change and its attendant higher levels and irregular patterns of rainfall are set to exacerbate the problem and this is mostly due to very poor funding,” the Minister stated.
He added that “where resources have been readily available like in the case of the GARID project, project execution has been slow. On the housing front, housing supply does not meet demand, resulting in a national deficit of 1.8 million housing units currently,” he added.
The Minister made it known that the conference was a manifestation of the Ministry’s commitment to fostering collaboration, innovation, and sustainable development within the built environment sector.
He was hopeful that the annual gathering would be a meaningful engagement platform that would strengthen collaboration and get results in addressing the challenges and encouraged all stakeholders to join in making the Authority and its operations a success by contributing to the Fund.
The primary goal of BENCHH 2024 is to foster collaboration among industry experts, policymakers, researchers, financiers, and other key stakeholders to work together, develop innovative and sustainable solutions to the hydrology and housing challenges.
The three-day conference was on the theme, “Enhancing Collaboration to Tackle Ghana’s Housing and Hydrology Challenges”.
Dr Prince Hamid Armah, Deputy Minister, Works and Housing, said facilitating dialogue and partnership would create a synergistic environment where ideas could flourish and lead to actionable strategies.
“Over the next three days, we will engage in dynamic discussions and workshops designed to pinpoint practical, real-world solutions. Our focus will be on addressing issues such as flooding, water resource management, affordable housing, and infrastructure resilience.”
He expressed the Ministry’s commitment to promoting practices that would not only meet current needs but also ensure the well-being of future generations.
Mr Ignatious Baffour Awuah, Minister, Employment and Labour Relations, said several communities had been affected by hydrological situations with a lot more continuing to face challenges in acquiring affordable housing.
Mr Awuah said that the Government had since 2017 taken bold and innovative measures and comprehensive interventions to tackle the challenges and mentioned the National Rental Assistance Scheme as one of the interventions in addressing the short to medium term market failures in the rental system.
He said effective collaboration between government, experts in the built environment sector , civil society organisations, economic actors and the media was key in finding lasting solutions to the challenges.
GNA
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