Ghana’s Lack of Parks is An Assault on Our Lives As Human Beings

Do you know what happened to the once-popular Afua Sutherland park in Accra? The tale is both shocking and pathetic.

In 2015, the executives of Downtown Leisure company, which specializes in recreational facilities, tried all that was possible to rejuvenate the Park by proposing to invest $3million into it but when everything was almost set, our own government officials pushed these investors out of the country with the unnecessary bureaucracy and their lackadaisical attitudes toward the project.

When we talk about civilization and standard of living, such things contribute greatly. How many functional parks are in Accra, Ghana? Where do you take your children to play and develop? And you wonder why we can’t even make a simple bulb?

Where do adults even go and sit or run? We have cleared all our greens to build houses —and we don’t care. The air we take in, is even affected by this lack of greens around us.

Currently, London alone has about “3,000 parks of varying sizes designated by the boroughs as ‘public open space’—London is a green city. Together they cover almost 18 percent of London.” These parks are owned and effectively maintained by the government through the various boroughs.

The current aim is to “make [London] more than 50% of the city green by 2050. We are working to make our city’s parks, green spaces, and waterways great places for people and spaces where wildlife can thrive.”

Just about 2 mins from where I live, there are two huge parks equipped with free gym equipment for anyone to use.

Obviously, we don’t have any plan as a nation and as a people for today and even for our future.

It’s painful that the ordinary people, most of who do not know any alternative see nothing wrong with the current state of affairs in Ghana and the future that lingers ahead.

Ghanaians are human beings too and they deserve to be treated or to live as one. One city alone has about 3,000 public well-managed parks and in our entire country, we can’t proudly count of just 3.

Some years ago, we visited the Afua Sutherland Park in Accra and took photos of the deplorable state we found it–CLICK HERE to see them.

The ‘Heaven on Earth’ column seeks to enlighten our Ghanaian readers by showcasing how other countries are properly managed and governed–and highlight the disparity between our lives and those of others at the other side of the world.