By Akosua Frema Frempong
A workshop to facilitate the implementation of science-based sustainable construction technologies has taken place in Kumasi.
It provided an opportunity for stakeholder discussions to develop innovative construction materials for a sustainable built environment in Ghana.
Cement production is responsible for a considerable percentage of global carbon emissions. The cement and concrete sector in Ghana is therefore at a crossroads in the utilization of cheaper and environmentally-friendly alternatives to sustain the country’s built environment.
This would mean incorporating local materials such as limestone clay and bio-based materials into the construction supply chain to create livelihoods and particularly reduce carbon emissions. It was in this regard that a workshop to facilitate the implementation of science-based sustainable construction technologies was held in Kumasi.
It was organized as part of an ongoing partnership agreement between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ghana Standards Authority and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Germany to collaborate on testing and standards development for construction materials and chemicals.
The agreement will promote fair competition in the construction materials and construction chemical market through improved standards and prevent defective products from entering the market at dumping prices.
In addition, safety standards in the construction sector would be improved by introducing quality standards that can be tested and proven. Eventually, this will mean that all construction projects in the country will be durable and offer full value for Ghanaians.
The Director-General of the Technology Consultancy Centre at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor, Francis Davis assured stakeholders of the commitment of the organization to research, co-develop, and transfer technology to support small and medium-scale industries in the country.
The Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Professor Alex Dodoo explained further the importance of the collaboration with the Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing of Germany for the Ghanaian construction industry.
‘’The Ghana Standard Authority, GSA, is working with the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, BAM which is the highest-level of institution in Germany for research and service delivery, construction, and testing for fire resistance.
We want to strengthen the capacity of Ghanaian construction laboratories and institutions to test buildings and develop new materials that are needed for the country. It is necessary because occasionally we witness building collapsing which should never happen.
Thankfully, the government through the GSA established a Building Code that is the standard for building in Ghana. For the building code to be effective we needed regulations for the building code to work effectively. Those regulations came in the form of legislative instrument that was approved by parliament after they had been laid by the Ministry of Works and Housing.
To this end, for every building you put up, the local authority will give approval but from the sand to the cement to the concrete to the roof, there are laws governing it. How do you ensure that these things benefit the consumer? How do you drive down the prices of building materials while at the same time ensuring the buildings are strong and will stand the test of time’’, he explained.
The academia must be engaged, laws must be put in place and enforced. If we do so, we going to have buildings in which we now use glass fiber instead of steel which will be using much less cement and a lot more clay and other materials available in our community. People can then buy certified concrete. When we do that, people are going to build 30 percent cheaper,’’ Professor Alex Dodoo indicated.
A Senior Researcher at Germany’s Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Dr. Wolfram Schmidt highlighted the future developments in cement and concrete technologies. He said his outfit was ready to collaborate with Ghana’s construction industry to find sustainable, effective, and alternative materials for construction.
‘’This initiative was triggered by the German Ministry of economic affairs and climate exchange as well as the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The objective is to collaborate between our institutions thus the Ghana Standards Authority and German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, BAM, and the background is that today, the built environment is responsible for 40 percent of the global carbon emissions, and concrete is the most important construction material that we are using.
We cannot continue to use concrete as we did in the past and I should say that most parts of the world have messed up and we developed technologies that are not environmentally friendly and sustainable to provide a good future for our children because we destroyed the environment,’’ he noted.
‘’That means we have to think in a different way in the near future to develop technologies that are cleaner, safer, and less carbon-intensive and the institutional partnership is looking at how we can develop standards, regulations, and construction framework that is different from what we have been doing in the past,’’ Dr. Wolfram Schmidt indicated.
