Let’s stop using roads as markets

 The ongoing encroach­ment of sections of the Accra-Cape Coast Highway along the Mallam Mar­ket by traders has become more than just inconvenience to both drivers and other road users who ply it.

It rather depicts a vivid symp­tom the long-standing national challenge of improper spatial planning and poor urban man­agement in the country.

More than six decades after independence, Ghana is yet to implement a comprehensive spatial and land-use policy that aligns national development with infrastructure, safety, and economic activity.

The resultant effect is that, cities like Accra, Kumasi, Ta­koradi, cape Coast, Sunyani and Tamale continue to expand in a haphazard fashion, with markets overflowing it bounds, roads be­coming major retail spaces, and pedestrians and vehicles forced into daily battles for space and safety.

The Mallam Junction, Kanshie and the Central Business Dis­trict, are intended to bustle with economic activities, but markets have spilled far beyond their boundaries resulting in conges­tion, obstructing both human and vehicular movement.

Aside, traders, most often than not, cite poor conditions at the markets and limited custom­er inflow as some of the reasons for adopting the pavements, road shoulders, and even active lanes of the highway as trading spaces.

Typical example is the Mallam Junction Market, where the daily congestion is not only unbear­able, but an eyesore as Trucks Park erratically along the road to deliver goods. Pedestrians shun the footbridge erected there to protect them from vehicu­lar knock-downs. They rather cross the road dangerously. It is a chaotic and risky scene, one that undermines the purpose of providing public infrastructure, and endangers lives.

The economic realities of the traders are not lost on anyone. Selling perishable goods in a market with low foot traffic is an unsustainable venture, and it is understandable, however, public safety and order cannot be sacrificed on the altar of convenience.

Neither can the rule of law bend to accommodate individual economic hardship. Even among the traders, there is disagreement on the misuse of our roads and footbridges, especially at market places.

Those who operate at the market express frustration that others who occupy the roadside are not only causing congestion and risking their lives, but draw­ing customers away.

Clearly, these are acts of indis­cipline should not be tolerated as we strive to improve our wellbeing.

This points to the urgent need for fair but firm enforcement of rules and regulations that ensure proper use infrastructure pro­vide to facilitate socio-economic activities.

The Ghanaian Times is par­ticularly concerned about the seemingly disregard for regula­tions, which is invariably turning our roads and markets into one big slum.

We also believe that it is important for a broader conver­sation on proper spatial planning and infrastructure development to avoid congestion along our roads.

The Mallam Market issue is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole country must wake up to the cost of its planning failures since unregulated urban growth will only continue to deepen social inequity, breed lawlessness and stall progress.

We need a national commit­ment to sustainable city devel­opment, backed by legislation, community engagement, and a willingness to enforce rules.

The Ghanaian Times also draws attention to the fact that order and the quest for livelihoods must not have to be in conflict.

With the right attitudes, pol­icies, leadership and infrastruc­ture investment, the country can build cities where trading can thrive without becoming a curse to the people.

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