Accra’s Climate Action Plan will reshape the Ghanaian capital’s future
Victor Neequaye Kotey, Deputy Director of the Waste Management Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, discussed unique challenges the Ghanaian capital faces around climate change (including flooding, rising sea levels, and erratic rainfall patterns), migration and social inequality, and infrastructure deficits. The water and sanitation expert is Accra’s lead in waste sector climate action implementation and brought his vision for a more liveable Accra to the AMS Scientific Conference 2024.
Victor contributes his expertise in climate change adaptation and mitigation and developing a sustainable solid waste management system for Ghana and the West African Sub region. His speech brilliantly ties together the need for stakeholder engagement, innovation in food production, urban planning, and citizen engagement — revealing big plans to divert organic waste from landfills, expand cycling infrastructure, introduce low emission busses and a metro system, implement a resilient land use plan to address congestion issues, and deploy innovations in food production, processing, storage and urban agriculture in Accra.
Quotes:
“Accra is home to nearly 3 million people. And because of the opportunities offered by the city, we have about a million people transiting or passing through the city or universities, either on transit to other places, or they come to the city to do their business and then move out at the end of the day. It's quite congested, and also home to those from other parts of Ghana and the Sahara regions. Most of this migration is climate induced.”
“Accra is well below sea level. So therefore we are very vulnerable to flooding and because of an increase in global temperatures, we have issues with rising sea levels and the western part of Accra, are we having issues with coastal erosion.”
“As city managers, we have to reinvent the city that we want and what are the actions that we have to take in order to restore the ecology of water bodies, send less to landfill, decarbonise our infrastructure, and manage congestion.”
“We need to involve citizens to achieve our Climate Action Plan targets: principles of engagement, emphasise inclusivity and ownership in partnerships. This applies to all city activities and engagements.”
“We ALL are the real owners of the city, including myself, including every citizen or everyone who comes to the city to do their business, paths to finding their way here are limitless.”