Effects Of Rapid Urbanisation On Urban Livelihoods In Ghana

By: Paul Kwasi

Email: [email protected]

According to State of the World cities report 2008/09, more than half of the world’s population
now lives in cities and by 2030, this percentage would have risen to almost 60%. Most of this
increase would be in developing world, where city population grow by an average of five million
residents per month (UN – Habitat 2008, p.5). This therefore calls for pragmatic urban planning
policies and measures to curtail the menace of rapid urbanisation to achieve sustainable
development. Urbanisation is one of the most significant processes that have affected human
societies especially since the last century. It is an inter-sectoral phenomenon involving all aspects
of human society and economy. Towns and cities perform various functions not only for the
space economies they serve but increasingly the importance of some of them extends to the
regional and global levels. Urban livelihoods depend on the spate of urbanisation. Despite the
socio-economic importance associated with urbanisation, it has some negative effects on urban
livelihoods especially for the urban poor if not properly managed. This article therefore looks at
the effects of urbanisation on urban livelihoods in Ghana.
It has been observed that the most spectacular change in Ghana over the last few decades has
been the dramatic demographic shift from rural areas to the cities. For instance, with over 70%
rural at independence, the country is now over 50% urbanized. As cities and towns in Ghana
have confronted this demographic explosion, urban management has become all the more
challenging amid the current trend toward decentralization. The following outlines some of the
effects of urbanisation on urban livelihoods.
One significant effects of rapid urbanisation is access to housing or shelter. For the livelihoods of
urban dwellers to be sustainable, there is the need for proper shelter that meets the standard of
WHO Expert Committee on housing to be provided. Cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Tema and
Takoradi which are experiencing rapid urbanisation lack adequate housing to accommodate the
citizenry. Urbanisation has brought about the development of slums and shanty towns in those
cities. The limited housing units available for consumption are not affordable to the urban poor.
The available housing units are also designed to serve middle and high income earners leaving
the low income earners. The affordable housing units which were dotted across the towns and
cities by the erstwhile government during the 2000s in Ghana to address the housing needs of the
urban poor have been abandoned to its’ fate. Urbanisation has brought about high rent charges.
The high cost of rent has worsened the livelihoods of urban dwellers as huge proportion of
income is spent on rent. The land market has also been affected tremendously as urban dwellers
are not able to afford the cost of a plot of land due to urbanisation. It can therefore be concluded
that urbanisation would continue to make the urban poor poorer and the rich richer if pragmatic
efforts are not put in place to curtail the situation.
Resilient and competitive urban areas depend on rapid, reliable and efficient transportation
infrastructure and services. In Ghana, urban livelihoods depend on the transportation system and
services. Whilst urbanisation has sustained livelihoods of operators of transport services
especially drivers, it has enormously impacted negatively on the livelihoods of ordinary urban
dwellers. Due to urbanisation, many of the municipal services can now only be accessed at the
Central Business Districts of which many of the urban poor do not live close to those services.
Therefore, it is imperative for urban dwellers to travel to the city centres to access certain basic
municipal services. The cost of commuting to the city centres to access municipal services in
terms of travel time and distance has to be borne by the urban dwellers. Urbanisation has
therefore made the cost of transport services very expensive due to the number of hours spent on
travels. Urban dwellers that can afford transport cost commute easily to city centres to obtain
services at cheaper cost as compared with those that access services within their neighbourhood.
It is a win-win and loss-loss situation for urban dwellers. For instance, due to rapid urbanisation
in Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis as a result of the emergence of oil and gas industry, transport
fares are exorbitant. Though transport operators are making profit which is contributing to
sustaining livelihoods, other users of transport services are incurring so much cost leading to
degeneration of livelihoods especially the urban poor. Other transport problems associated with
urbanisation in Ghana include traffic congestion, unauthorised on-street parking, lack of parking
lots, etc.
The spatial morphology of urban areas cannot be overlooked when looking at urbanisation and
its effects on Ghanaian towns and cities. Urban growth coupled with ineffective urban planning
policies has brought about changes in the spatial structure of towns and cities in Ghana. Physical
development in Ghanaian cities and towns are always proceeding before plan. Urbanisation in
Ghana has created land use disorder and uncontrolled urban sprawl. Urbanisation has made
development control in towns and cities difficult. Institutions such as Town and Country
Planning Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Lands Commission, Surveying and
Mapping Division, among others charged with the responsibility of regulating and managing
urban land use are not able to execute their responsibilities effectively due to rapid urbanisation.
Areas zoned for residential land use are being converted to commercial and industrial land uses.
Additionally, areas zoned for greenery open space to give aesthetic beauty to the urban landscape
and help fight climate change are being utilised for commercial and residential purposes. The
wetlands in urban areas of Ghana are not been properly managed by urban managers as people
are encroaching upon them. All these activities are as a result of urbanisation. When there is
flooding in our towns and cities as a result of encroachment upon wetlands and non-enforcement
of planning legislations, the public begin to blame institutions such as the Town and Country
Planning Department. The affected urban dwellers resort to the call of National Disaster
Management Organisation (NADMO) for assistance. The hard earned financial resources of the
state are channeled into addressing that flooding situation which that disaster could have been
averted through obedience to plans and proper planning. Consequently, the livelihoods of the
urban dwellers are jeopardized.
Urban dwellers access to social services such as water, sanitation, electricity, security, markets,
among others is hampered due to rapid urbanisation. As cities and towns grow, municipal
governments lack adequate financial resources to support infrastructure provision and services to
meet the increasing population. Therefore, the livelihoods of urban dwellers are affected hence
the many challenges in the cities such as theft, insecurity, etc. Despite the negative effects of
urbanisation on livelihoods of urban dwellers in Ghana, it has some significance. Some
importance of rapid urbanisation includes the following: towns and cities become resilient and
competitive, urban dwellers have access to high order municipal services, job creation and
employment opportunities, wealth creation leading to increase in income, municipal
governments able to provide infrastructure services at cheaper cost due to concentration and
proximity, among others.
It needs to be stressed that the effects posed by rapid urbanisation would not simply go away
without conscious efforts and interventions by municipal and metropolitan authorities. The close
association between urbanisation and socio-economic development requires that every effort
must be made to minimise the effects, and thus enhance or maximise the benefits of the process.
It is therefore prudent that Ghana adheres to the national urban policy to deal with
overconcentration of growth and development in a few cities; weak urban economy; land-use
disorder and uncontrolled urban sprawl; increasing environmental deterioration; inadequate
urban infrastructure and services; increasing urban insecurity; urban poverty, slums and squatter
settlements; weak urban governance and institutional coordination; weak information, education
and communication strategy; inadequate urban investment and financing; weak urban
transportation planning and traffic management; delimitation of urban areas of jurisdiction; lack
of integrated planning across jurisdictional boundaries; weak rural-urban linkages, limited data
and information on urban centres. Municipal authorities should put in place implementation
plans in a form of monitoring and evaluation to ensure that, work proceeds according to plan and
that the output of the implementation of the policy could be measured.