Bolgatanga: Dr Eva Akanchalabey, a Development Planning Officer, has emphasized the need for strategic and long-term infrastructural planning in the Upper East Region, urging authorities to learn from past oversights and invest in robust projects to accommodate future population growth.
According to Ghana News Agency, Dr Akanchalabey highlighted the importance of a strategic approach to infrastructure development, given its high cost and far-reaching implications. She advised learning from past experiences to avoid repeating previous mistakes. "As a people, we have to look first at what worked in some places and what did not work, then we will be able to diagnose well so that we will not repeat the mistakes of the past," she said.
Dr Akanchalabey, who serves as a Senior Programme Officer at the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province Partnership in Action (TEPPIA), stressed that infrastructure projects require substantial financial investments and should be designed to be long-lasting. She cautioned against hasty planning, especially given the region's limited resources. "Infrastructure is capital-intensive. Because we are poor, we should consider our status and do it well so that the infrastructure can stand the test of time," she stated.
Addressing the need to anticipate future demographic changes, Dr Akanchalabey noted, "The infrastructure you are putting up today, you should be thinking that population is not static. Population is growing, so it will be there to meet even growing populations in the future."
Dr Akanchalabey also discussed the challenges in infrastructure planning within the Upper East Region, indicating that issues extend beyond politics and include social and demographic factors. She cited the region's ethnic and linguistic diversity as one of the obstacles to community mobilization for development initiatives. "There are a number of factors that are lacking," she explained, pointing out the difficulty in rallying diverse groups for support.
She drew comparisons with the Upper West Region, where linguistic homogeneity has facilitated development efforts, and acknowledged that political commitment is crucial but the historical scarcity of natural resources in the Upper East Region has been a limiting factor. "The political will is also something, but we are also a region that should consider that we didn't have many resources until of late," she said.
Dr Akanchalabey pointed to recent gold discoveries as a potential avenue for development if the region capitalizes on lessons learned from other mining communities. "We now know that Upper East Region has gold, and our gold is richer than even other areas in the country. So, we should look at what didn't go well in those areas so that we will not repeat the same thing in Upper East Region when it comes to infrastructure development," she remarked.
She also commented on the proliferation of fuel filling stations within residential areas, attributing it to weaknesses in land-use planning rather than individual developers. "Most of the owners of the filling stations acquired their lands before. I think there is an institutional gap because if we had done proper land-use planning, places would have been designated for specific developments," she explained.
Dr Akanchalabey called for the strengthening of planning systems, enforcement of zoning regulations, and adoption of long-term infrastructure development strategies to ensure sustainable growth in the Upper East Region.