By Juliet Mettle-Edmonds
Sixty-two injuries and two deaths have been recorded in eight separate structural collapses in three regions within the past four months in 2023.
Greater Accra region has recorded six of such incidences, Ashanti and Northern regions have recorded a case each.
Management of the Ghana National Fire Service says these structural collapses happened during construction.
The service, therefore called for urgent attention, considering the high number of injuries recorded and lives lost in such accidents.
On February 15, 2023, a-storey building under construction at Ashongman Estate in Accra collapsed with five workers sustaining various degrees of injuries.
On March 1, 2023, a three-storey building at the Royal Gospel Junior High School at Sukura also in Accra, collapsed, but no casualties were recorded.
On 21st April 21, 2023, a warehouse with an adjoining building at Taifa in Accra also collapsed, causing two people’s injuries.
On 1st May this year, an uncompleted three-storey building collapsed at SDA Junction near Kpogas Furniture at Adenta in Accra where one person died and two construction workers got injured seriously.
On May 04, 2023, one person died and another sustained serious injury when an uncompleted three-storey building collapsed at Nanakrom within the Adentan Municipality.
Seven construction workers sustained various degrees of injuries leaving one in critical condition, on May 09, when a three-storey church building collapsed at Old Bortianor in the Ga South Municipality.
In the Ashanti Region, the dining hall of Ejuraman Senior High School in Ejura collapsed on a group of students injuring 45 of them. The injured students were rescued and sent to the Ejura Government Hospital.
On Saturday, May 06, 2023 a six-storey building under construction at the Tamale-UDS City Campus in the Northern Region also collapsed without recording any casualty.
Management of Ghana National Fire Service, therefore, calls for full-scale investigations to be conducted into these avoidable recorded incidents by all relevant stakeholders in the building and construction space, especially the engineering council and recommendations implemented to help curb this worrying trend.
Management further calls on land developers to desist from engaging the services of uncertified development practitioners, land developers to go through the appropriate processes and permits for their projects, a stronger collaboration between all key stakeholders in the Built Environment industry with the metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) enforcing all building regulations, and urged developers who flout structural integrity and safety provisions to prevent this worrying trend in the country.
