The former deputy mayor of the capital district and environmentalist, Raisa Banfield, spoke on Tuesday about population planning and the lack of public spaces, indicating that the power of the Decentralization Law, which has been fought for several five years, has not been understood.
“Panama fought for a Decentralization Law that began to be in force in 2016, but we have not understood the power of that law because it is easier to discharge responsibility on another, to continue making things work as they do now,” he stressed.
According to Banfield, as long as this happens, the money from decentralization is being badly invested. “As long as this continues to happen, we are going to have a country with a hydrocephalic capital city and a diminished body in the rest of the municipalities,” he said.
From his point of view, the communities themselves are far from knowing their responsibilities and their rights within the management of the territory because it is not convenient for some of the citizens to organize themselves and form these local development boards and then execute them.
“We are in the 21st century, in one of the most prosperous economies, even in the midst of the crisis, but we continue to be a country with one of the greatest inequities in the world because the macroeconomic hydrocephalus focused on the need to generate projects according to what that some decide for all, has us in this territorial imbalance where decentralized management is not a priority for many.
Regarding the recovery of public spaces, he pointed out that Panama does not have a habit of having good quality sidewalks and it is very difficult for them to reclaim them.
