According to a Citinewsroom report, the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry is blaming Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for the collapse of four ongoing building projects recorded in the country in less than two weeks. The Chamber stated the failure of MMDAs to effectively assess the work of land developers who intend to put up buildings caused the buildings to come down.
The Chamber believes that the recent collapse of buildings is due to some land developers who hire the services of quack engineers to supervise construction works which makes them cut corners when putting up projects.
This is in relation to the church building which collapsed at Old Bortianor, earlier this week. For some time now, the country has been recording cases of collapsed buildings in the country. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry, Emmanuel Cherry,has called on the authorities to begin cracking the whip on land developers who flout structural integrity rules.
There are many reasons, which lead to collapse of buildings. For instance,due to defective Engineering or if an Architect fails to do or insist on the carrying out of feasibility studies, site and soil investigation, which are the bases for design of adequate architectural and structural drawings.
Also, the use of substandard blocks from block factories, investigation has revealed that 1 bag of cement is used to mould 40-45 numbers of 225mm (9ins) blocks. Without adequate supervision, contractors can engage in inappropriate and unwarranted practices.
Corruption is also something that cannot be easily dealt away with, as far as construction is concern. In the Ghanaian construction industry, sometimes drawings are not read by officers of the approving authority to detect defects.
They sometimes engage in corrupt practices by granting illegal approvals without recourse to the lives at stake when the building is put up. Example was the collapse of a multi-storey shopping centre in Achimota in 2012 as a result of faulty construction. According to reports the said building did not have the necessary permit and had not had a safety inspection.
All these are contributing factors that cause the collapse of buildings and it is high time government and officials look into these things. The Chronicle is elated that the Ga South Municipality has constituted a Committee to look into Tuesday’s accident where 7 individuals working in the church building at Old Bortianor got injured, after the three-story building collapsed.
The Committee has been set up to look into the matter to find out the reasons that led to the collapse of the building. When the findings are out, The Chronicle believes the powers that be will punish the culprits and rectify the mistakes so that going forward stringent measures will be put in place to reduce these incidences to the barest minimum.
