World Habitat Day: Involve the youth in shaping our future

Today is World Habitat Day (WHD), which has been marked on the first Monday of October each year since 1986, to reflect on the state of towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. 

The day is also intended to remind the world that everyone has the power and the responsibility to shape the future of towns and cities.

It is also a global observance aimed at raising awareness of the importance of sustainable urban development, adequate housing and access to basic amenities.

This annual event provides an opportunity to reflect on the state of our cities and towns and to advocate positive changes that promote better living conditions for all. 

WHD calls for action to address housing challenges, urban inequality and environmental sustainability.

Established by the United Nations to draw attention to the need for sustainable urban development and adequate housing for all, WHD serves as a reminder of the global commitment to creating inclusive, safe, resilient cities and communities.

According to Habitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit organisation, “An estimated 1.6 billion people already live without adequate shelter. In 39 countries around the world, over 50 per cent of the urban population lives in informal settlements, and 4.2 billion people live without improved sanitation.”

Shelter is not about living anywhere. An adequate shelter must have sufficient space and protection from cold, damp, heat, rain, wind or other threats to health, including structural hazards and disease vectors, the availability of services, facilities, materials and infrastructure, as well as affordability, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural appropriateness.

Indeed, the commemoration of the day serves as a reminder of the haphazard development of our cities, with access to basic amenities still being a great challenge to many a city dweller.

In our capital cities all across the country, accessing potable water, good sanitation and proper hygiene is still fraught with numerous challenges. Challenges brought about by residents themselves as well as duty bearers who have shirked their responsibilities.

Dwellings are put up in many places, both authorised and unauthorised, not according to laid down procedure, and sometimes on watercourses and road paths, thus obstructing smooth flow of water when it rains and also making those places inaccessible when there is an emergency.

Our towns and cities have become concrete jungles as all available spaces have been sold out for dwellings — no parks or green spaces for recreation and relaxation.

The least said about our road network, the better, as we are very deficient in constructing proper roads as a country. Factors accounting for this include poor construction, the government alone taking the responsibility for constructing our roads as per our current laws, the lack of maintenance and the abuse of the infrastructure by the users when they are put in place.

Slums have developed in Accra and in all our major cities, resulting in sanitation challenges, inequality in living conditions, exclusive, unsafe, and non-resilient cities and communities.

In other jurisdictions, once a citizen attains adulthood he or she is entitled to a well-constructed place of abode.

However, we still grapple with a place to lay our heads even in old age, resulting in so much inequality and desecration of the environment, because landowners will even sell water bodies for developments of any kind.

As rightly stated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, while this year’s World Habitat Day focused attention on ‘Resilient Urban Economies’ and the potential of cities as drivers of inclusive, green and sustainable growth, cities must confront a range of challenges – from economic shocks and escalating climate emergencies to widening inequalities, to fulfil this promise.

In fact, he added that young people were crucial to building a more equitable and sustainable future, and making the most of that potential required investing in education, expanding digital skills, fostering entrepreneurship and promoting youth-led initiatives on climate action, affordable housing and durable mobility.

While this requires far greater investments in sustainable infrastructure and early warning systems, it is also important that we work to improve access to electricity, water, sanitation, transport and other basic services. Education, skills development, digital innovation and entrepreneurship are also worth investing in.

Local action is vital, and global cooperation indispensable.

Let us all pledge to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable human settlements for all people everywhere and, thus, promote dignified living for all classes of society going into the future.