The Obuasi Municipal Assembly (OMA) is targeting Unit Committee members to lead in dealing with climate change.
“The Assembly recognises the role Unit Committee members play since they are in touch with the people at the community level, so we decided to train them on issues of climate change so that they will help the Assembly fight it at the base of the structures,” Mr Elijah Adansi-Bonnah, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) said.
The MCE believes that fighting climate change required an all-hands-on- deck approach.
He told on the side-lines of a four-day capacity building workshop in Obuasi on climate change the assembly recognised Unit Committee members as key stakeholders in its efforts to mitigate climate change, hence it is targeting Unit Committee members to lead the fight at the community level.
That is why, according to the MCE, the assembly had rolled out a four-day capacity building workshop on climate change for all Unit Committee members of the two Zonal Councils in the Municipality.
The rationale behind the workshop was to equip them with basic skills and knowledge on how to mitigate the effects of climate change at the community level.
It is estimated that 45,000 Ghanaians are affected by flooding every year and half of Ghana’s coastline is vulnerable to erosion and flooding as a result of sea-level rise, according to the World Bank Group’s New Country Climate and Development Report.
Mr Adansi-Bonah underscored the importance of the decentralization system and the role the Zonal Councils and the Unit Committees played at the local level in the implementation of programmes and policies of the Assembly.
The MCE charged them to apply the knowledge acquired to tackle the increasing effects of climate change on the environment for sustainable development. He further urged them to double their efforts in collecting revenue for the Assembly to provide the needed financial muscle to embark on programmes to improve the lives of the people in the Municipality. Mr. Joseph Asibi Bashir, the Development Planning Officer of the Assembly, said the Assembly in its resolve to strengthen the sub- structures, reconstituted the Zonal Councils in 2020. This was done to empower them to perform their roles and functions as stipulated in Legislative Instrument (LI) 1967. He said the workshop which hinged on resilience was to train Unit Committee members to appreciate the effects of climate change and their role in urban resilience.”Whiles the Assembly makes efforts to restructure the Unit Committee system, we are also equipping them with tools needed to fight climate change in Obuasi,” he noted.
With the support from the Secondary Cities Support Programme, under the capacity support grant component, the workshop was expected to prepare them adequately to fight the effects of climate change following the devastating effects of flood and other natural disasters in Obuasi in recent times.
GNA