Lands Minister inaugurates planning committee for Green Street Project
The committee includes senior representatives of the Forestry Commission, Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Urban Roads, Department of Parks and Gardens, Zoomlion Ghana Ltd and Mullen Lowe
Samuel Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has inaugurated a committee that will see to the planning and implementation of the Green Street Project.
At a brief ceremony held in the ministry’s conference room on Tuesday (2 August 2022), the Lands Minister tasked the members of the committee to act virtuously in helping the government to accomplish its aims for the project.
Disclosing the rationale behind the Green Street Project, Jinapor said the prevailing circumstances elsewhere governing climatic conditions as well as the government’s effort to beautify the nation’s cities and towns had made the project necessary.
He said that whereas the successful Green Ghana campaign is the government’s flagship afforestation programme, the Green Street Project will focus on growing trees to improve the aesthetics, specifically, of towns and cities.
Jinapor said the government has taken note of the air quality in Ghana’s big cities and believes that greening cities is a definite way of improving this.
Green pleasure for the eye
Given that the Green Street exercise will perform the dual role of improving the environment and making cities pleasing to the eye, he said, specific trees crops will have to be selected by the committee, and cautiously so.
“A look around some of the major cities across the world reveals an intentional planting of particular types of trees to add to the aesthetics of the city. London in the United Kingdom, Paris in France, and to some extent, Cairo in Egypt, Abuja in Nigeria and Abidjan in Ivory Coast are just a few examples,” Jinapor said.
“The government has, therefore, decided to implement this Ghana Green Street Project as part of measures to beautify our cities and contribute to global climate action. The overarching objective of this Project is to plant appropriate tree species, capable of providing both aesthetic view and environmental related benefits for a healthy and sustainable world,” the minister said.
The first phase of the project will involve planting of selected trees on principal streets in the cities of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Sekondi-Takoradi, Jinapor announced, before being extended to the 12 other regional capitals.
The project is an ambitious one, Jinapor conceded, and it must be robust. As such, the planning committee is co-chaired by the deputy minister of lands and natural resources responsible for forestry and the deputy minister of local government, decentralisation and rural development and draws members from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Local Government and Decentralisation and the Department of Urban Roads.
Also among the committee members are senior representatives of the Forestry Commission, Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Parks and Gardens, Zoomlion Ghana Ltd and Mullen Lowe.
Co-operative effort
The committee has been tasked to identify principal streets and avenues in the cities where trees will be planted, picking out resilient and fast-growing tree species for each of the regional capitals of Ghana.
It will also develop a detailed strategy, work plan and budget for the project, including strategies for nurturing and protecting the trees planted.
Benito Owusu-Bio, the deputy minister of lands and natural resources who co-chairs the committee, welcomed the responsibility handed members and gave the minister his assurance that the committee will discharge its duties to the utmost satisfaction.
Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the local government deputy minister co-chairing, said the partnership between his ministry and the other ministries, departments and agencies involved in the Green Street Project shows government institutions’ willingness to work together to improve life in Ghana.
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