MODERNISATION OF GHANA A CASE FOR SLUM UPGRADES.
INTRODUCTION
After 57 years of independence, Accra the capital of Ghana alone harbours about 25 slums as recorded by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This number adds up to a total of 80 per cent of the total inhabitants of the capital city. Shelter and water forms part of the basic needs of human but it is the most deficiency when it comes to slum settlements which are a sign of underdevelopment.
This precipitates the need for modernization that leads to the upgrade of slums hence development.
Over the centuries the definition of modernization has been a debatable issue.
Black (cited Chuanqi 2004:2) explained ‘’modernization as the third great revolutionary transformation in human affairs and the process of rapid change since the scientific revolution. The process of this change is of the same great as that from prehuman(sic) to human and from primitive to civilized society.’’
For a world were dynamism and upgrading is the order of the day, moving from a lower to a higher system can be said to be appropriate and Ghana as a nation must not be left out of the global trend, rather we (Ghana) should transform the deteriorating traditional societies to a modernized one.
The difference between modernizing and traditional societies is profound-being the difference between simple static structure and complex dynamic process.
UN-HABITAT defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following:
1. Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions.
2. Sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room.
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price.
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
5. Security of tenure that prevents forced evictions.
Many has been done to reducing poverty in
After 57 years of independence, Accra the capital of Ghana alone harbours about 25 slums as recorded by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This number adds up to a total of 80 per cent of the total inhabitants of the capital city. Shelter and water forms part of the basic needs of human but it is the most deficiency when it comes to slum settlements which are a sign of underdevelopment.
This precipitates the need for modernization that leads to the upgrade of slums hence development.
Over the centuries the definition of modernization has been a debatable issue.
Black (cited Chuanqi 2004:2) explained ‘’modernization as the third great revolutionary transformation in human affairs and the process of rapid change since the scientific revolution. The process of this change is of the same great as that from prehuman(sic) to human and from primitive to civilized society.’’
For a world were dynamism and upgrading is the order of the day, moving from a lower to a higher system can be said to be appropriate and Ghana as a nation must not be left out of the global trend, rather we (Ghana) should transform the deteriorating traditional societies to a modernized one.
The difference between modernizing and traditional societies is profound-being the difference between simple static structure and complex dynamic process.
UN-HABITAT defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following:
1. Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions.
2. Sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room.
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price.
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
5. Security of tenure that prevents forced evictions.
Many has been done to reducing poverty in
References: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/economy/artikel.php?ID=272039UN-HABITAT (2005), Urban Indicators Programme Phase III and United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects; The 2003 revision. Furlund, Eivind (2008), Singapore from third to first world country. The effect of development in Little India and Chinatown. UNDP (2010), Beyond the midpoint. Ben C. Arimah (2010,) Explaining the Prevalence of Slums in African Countries