The Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been urged by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Ghana, to inform developers of the need to hire specialists for their jobs.
Additionally, it exhorted developers to guarantee that their projects had the required approvals from the assembly.
It said that doing so would help them follow construction codes and protect their property.
"The various assemblies should be educating the general public on the necessity for developers to hire specialists and follow the procedures to receive their permission on their local radios and information centres.
The Daily Graphic in Accra was informed by Henry Kwadwo Boateng, President of the IET, Ghana, that it was for their own benefit.
Three multi-story buildings fell in three different places in the first week of this month, all in quick succession.
They included a three-story building at Nanakrom in the Adentan Region and a six-story structure being built at the University for Development Studies (UDS) City Campus in Sagnarigu in Tamale in the Northern Region.
In Accra, near the SDA Junction on the Adentan side of La-Nkwantanang Madina, a three-story skyscraper is also being built.
In the most recent instance, one person died and three others were injured.
At Akyem Batabi in the Eastern Region, a five-story church structure collapsed in October 2020, killing 22 people.
Three individuals were murdered and 18 others were injured earlier in July 2015 when a three-story structure collapsed.
Fire protection
The Ghana National Fire Service responded to the recent collapses by stating that management had noticed that the unfortunate structural collapses mostly occurred with buildings under construction having weak foundations, reductions in reinforcement, reductions in concrete strength, poor supervision, and the use of poor quality building materials, among others.
It advised developers to refrain from using unlicensed development practitioners.
In order to guarantee that the building materials utilised are of the highest calibre, Mr. Boateng also urged the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to step up its enforcement of and oversight of substandard building materials on the market.
He claimed that this was because so many subpar products were being released into the market, necessitating increased supervision.
"Once more, the standards authority has to pay attention since a lot of subpar items are being imported.
Look at the sizes and quality of our reinforcement, which we refer to as iron bars.
This is due to the fact that they decreased it so that a half-inch is no longer a half-inch, he highlighted.
Additionally, he demanded that anybody building a church or a mosque obtain licences and hire licenced contractors.
Politicians should share some of the blame for fallen structures, according to the IET Ghana, a recognised licenced professional engineering group.
The failure of developers to hire specialists to do their job for them, it added, was in addition to this.
The organisation also claimed that local engineers were not provided with the requisite equipment and resources that included, among others, automobiles to drive about for inspections, rebound, or smith hammers for testing concrete.
It thus urged politicians to refrain from interfering with engineers' work so that they could carry out their duties as experts by ensuring that builders complied with construction codes to save their infrastructure from collapsing.
"What worsens the situation is when our engineers at the local government start out on development control by visiting structures that are still under construction.
There are some areas you visit, and the politician will advise you not to return there, according to Mr. Boateng.
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