Accra, Feb. 11, GNA - A GH¢9,000 alley paving project to beautify selected alleys in the Ashabienaa-Jamestown communities was commissioned on Wednesday in Accra with a call on members of the community to support the project to a successful completion. The community-based project has funding from HFC Bank for the construction of the selected alleys under the NGO CHF International's Scale-up programme.

The Scale-up programme is a three-year urban development initiative sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (BMGF). The facilitating agencies for the Ashabienaa alley project include Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Ga Mashie Development Agency (GAMADA), the local community and the private sector.

Mr Jonathan Tackie Komme, Member of Parliament for Odododiodioo, said the project, expected to be completed within a month, would help to improve the environmental and sanitation situations in the community. He said the project was scheduled to have started in 2000 by the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) government but due to the change in government it was halted and he was grateful that the originators had thought it prudent to continue it now. The MP pleaded with people within the project area to be vigilant and safeguard the materials to enable the contractor to complete the work on time.

Nii Teiko Tagoe, Project Director, GAMADA an NGO, said the project would also help to stop erosion, adding that, due to erosion all their coconut and almond trees had been destroyed. He said after the alley paving project they would embark on a tree planting exercise to serve as shed and also to prevent erosion in the community. He announced that some selected youth within the community would be trained to assist the contractor in executing the project. Nii Tagoe said as a move to attract more tourists to the Ga Mashie area, GAMADA would re-launch the "Kpanlongo Fiesta", a traditional dance, to give a profession to interested youth who would like to be trained in traditional dancing as well as generate more revenue to undertake development work in the community.

Mr Sylvestor Gabianu, Institutional Capacity Support Manager, CHF International, said the scale-up programme provided targeted capacity building to local NGOs to implement slum upgrading interventions in collaboration with community-based organisations and municipal authorities in five cities, three in India and two in Ghana. "In Ghana, we are operating in Accra and Sekondi," he said, adding that, his NGO had signed a memorandum of understanding with GAMADA to explore common areas for collaboration that met its agenda and the Ga Mashie 2015 Development Strategy.