The Department of Parks and Gardens (DPG) has started the beautification of road medians, shoulders and roundabouts along selected principal streets in the regional capitals.
The project, which began two months ago, has already resulted in the planting of 25,000 ornamental shrub saplings that generate a variety of flower colours for aesthetic purposes.
Assorted bedding plants and grass seedlings are also included, which can help to avoid soil erosion.
Aside from cash spent on nursing, planting materials, and administrative expenditures, the department is responsible for all of the seedlings used in the exercise.
The seedlings were planted in the road median near the Commission on Human Rights and Administration (CHRAJ) Head Office in Accra, from the Ridge Roundabout to the Airport Traffic Light on Independence Avenue/Liberation Road; from the La Trade Fair to the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel; and from the Black Stars Square to the beginning of the J.E.A. Mills Highway.
The Danquah Roundabout and the routes connecting the Kotoka International Airport are two more places.
Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Tamale, Goaso, and Bolgatanga have all seen the project.
Accra Visit
Shrubs, grass, and other ground covers were seen in the median and roundabout during a visit to the Ridge Roundabout on the Liberation Road in front of the Jubilee House.
Some trees whose branches hindered the view of security cameras at various sites were also cut to improve visibility and traffic safety.
Some DPG employees who were seen during the visit to the Ridge Roundabout informed the Daily Graphic that they were there to beautify the area by planting bushes and grass.
Logistical support
In January of this year, the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development gifted the department with cars and equipment to supplement its existing fleet.
A tipper truck, a Toyota Landcruiser Prado, a 4×4 Nissan pick-up, three desktop computers, and two laptops were among the items.
The remaining equipment includes 29 mowers, three drive mowers, 24 chainsaw machines, 24 grass shapers, four water storage tanks, and 11 ladders.
Open spaces
The program, which was being piloted and subsequently extended out to cover other parts of Accra and sub-regional levels, was also to promote the President’s initiative to make the country clean and beautiful, according to the acting Director of the department, Rev. Charles Ayitey Okine.
He added that the agency was working with several Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to identify open places to green and construct event centres, with Accra serving as a testbed.
“This exercise with the MMDAs is also ongoing, and we will exhibit them in due course,” he said.
He said the creation of the centres and the beautification exercise formed part of the department’s contribution to greening the country and addressing the issue of climate change.
He said the department had adopted a system to partner MMDAs to expand the project and also make it sustainable.
Rev. Okine said the DPG was also open to liaising with corporate bodies and individuals to sponsor particular segments to make the beautification project sustainable.
“The Ridge Roundabout planting, for instance, is funded by the Rebekah Foundation, and the rest of the works are the department’s initiatives.
“We are calling on the public to help fund some of the segments of the planting and beautification,” he added.
Improving ambience
The acting Director of the DPG added that the exercise was also to improve the ambience and beauty of the environment, while the pruning of the trees was to enhance visibility and safety on roads in Accra.
“Tree branches that have blocked some security cameras are also being pruned.
“At areas where new roads are being constructed, we are collaborating with the road sector agencies to plant shrubs and flowers to beautify them,” Rev. Okine said.
He said similar exercises were being undertaken by the department in the various regional capitals.
Awareness
Rev. Okine said the department was also engaging owners of residential facilities for the DPG to do their landscaping and charge the owners as part of the campaign for people to keep their frontages clean always.
That, he said, was to encourage individual beautification of the environment and also enhance the revenue mobilisation efforts of the department, as more people would come in to buy plants from its nurseries.
Appeal to corporate bodies
He reaffirmed the department’s invitation for businesses to join in the beautifying effort by adopting medians as part of their corporate social responsibility.
He claimed that would go a long way toward improving the environment and addressing climate change.
As some of the service providers dug the medians to lay their service lines, Rev. Okine said the DPG was working with them to ensure harmony.
“We’ve also started educating the public about the need of protecting trees since some people are falling them to make room for advertising,” the interim director added.
Recall
It quoted the DPG as saying that the beautifying of important roads’ medians, shoulders, and roundabouts will begin in February this year.