Accra, Dec 6, GNA - The Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, on Sunday gave the assurance that government would fund programmes aimed at transforming major cities and districts into a more conducive environment for human habitation. He said: "once the local authorities come out with a good transformative but sustainable programme derived from a proper feasibility studies, government will provide funds to aid its implementation".

Mr Mahama gave the assurance in Accra when he joined the ongoing joint four-day meeting between Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and a delegation of the Earth Institute of the Columbia University, to deliberate on how to develop Accra into a Millennium city, which commenced on Saturday December 5, 2009. The Vice President said government had already developed an Urban Renewal Programme aimed at restructuring and properly planning the cities in the country to ensure that they had necessary amenities. He said Accra was a cosmopolitan area with its boundaries and population among others not clearly known adding that the springing up of new settlements within the city made its planning almost difficult.

The Vice President said this called for measures to ease pressure on Accra as well as other major cities by creating growth poles in strategic places where people could relocate to earn meaningful living rather move to the cities with the hope to finding better jobs and opportunities. Mr Mahama mentioned the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) which was being implemented in the Northern Region to offer job opportunities to people there, among others as some of government's interventions to ease pressure on the major cities such as Accra and Tema, which controlled about 80 per cent of the country's economic activities.

Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, AMA Chief Executive, reiterated his desire to modernize Accra to ensure that it had regular water and electricity supply, clean environment and good roads, effective drainage system and good private and public toilets.

Dr. Susan Blaustein, Co-Director of the Millennium City Initiative (MCI), and Leader of the Earth Institute's delegation said they would analyze the peculiar problems of Accra and designed appropriate remedies to help the Mayor to transform the city. Meanwhile, the day two of the meeting saw presentations on education and infrastructure problems in the metropolis and also budget for the AMA where 70 per cent of it is used for waste management.