A sod-cutting ceremony has been performed for the establishment of 3,500 housing units eco-city project at Abbankrom in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.
Dubbed: “the GM Bamboo Eco-Tech-City-2”, the sprawling project on a 160-acre plot will spread into Afenakrom, and share boundary with Damang-Anomabo.
The city will also have a logistics development centre; research, education and training centres, 15 small and medium scale industries, and a resort, all targeting minimal carbon emissions.
Already, the project company has been to the Netherlands, Turkey, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, seeking more investors for the project.
Next generation cities
The Chief Executive Officer of GM Bamboo Eco-city Company, Samuel Worwui, said the focus of the sustainable city was to develop a multi-purpose self-sustaining, carbon-negative city, a model of the next generation cities.
Its design, he noted, would not only improve living standards at affordable cost, but also generate revenue and income for the city’s dwellers through rooftop greenhouse, indoor, animal and fish farming; waste recycling, renewable power generation, eco-tourism, high-tech industries, modern logistics, commercial and recreational centres.
He further stated that the company developed from a pragmatic approach to using globally available ancient and local construction materials and technologies with modernised touch to derive value and climate change solutions.
He said the company also sought to use innovative solutions to resolve problems of affordable housing deficit, food insecurity, air pollution, public health risk and unemployment, including rural-urban migration.
He stated that the company would work to ensure that nature and humans lived healthily and harmoniously together.
He said the company had secured land for another eco-city at Putubiw, near Cape Coast.
Laudable initiative
The Central Regional Minister, Justina Marigold Assan, in an address read on her behalf, said the project was a laudable initiative that would promote sustainable environment and reduce the effects of climate change in the area.
She indicated that issues of climate change and its subsequent impact on food production, security and the well-being of communities needed prompt action as they bordered on human survival and development.
The Paramount Chief of the Abeadze Traditional Area, Daasebre Kweku Ewusi, commended the company for the initiative, and urged chiefs to promptly release lands to investors who were ready to promote the development of the communities.
A representative of the family of the original landowners, Osaahen Justice Ogua, called for employment opportunities for the area as the project readied to take off.
