‘Formulate national building code’

THE President of Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA), Mr Osei Kwame Agyeman has proposed the formulation of a national building code to reduce the incidence of fire outbreaks.
The code he said, would complement the National Building Regulations and Legislative Instrument (LI 1630) of 1996 which were intended to ensure the safety of life and property.
Mr Agyeman told the Daily Graphic that most of the measures being adopted by the authorities in urban centres to address challenges of congestion were short-term and would not be able to adequately solve the problems.
He cited the case of Kumasi where the spate of development was far beyond the capacity of the planning authorities and said it would be difficult to manage the metropolis in future unless urgent measures were taken.
Mr Agyeman said the non-enforcement of building regulations in the country presently made it difficult for the authorities to address emergency situations such as fire outbreaks and provide access to healthcare, basic utilities such as water electricity and educational facilities.
“When you create a market that contains commercial goods, structures and people with no access for emergency services and utilities, then you are creating a hazardous environment, which we have been living with on a daily basis,” he added.
Mr Agyeman said the country needed to integrate the planning of socio-economic and infrastructure activities which were features of every human endeavour and called for the establishment of agencies to regulate the building industry and environment.
“Ideally, we should have a planning scheme. By law no development should take place without a legitimate planning scheme,” he stated and attributed majority of the problems or challenges facing the various assemblies to uncontrolled planning which had led to the growth in squatters, crime and social deviants in urban centres.
Mr Agyeman urged planning authorities to be bold and stand by their decision to decongest urban centres and submitted that to salvage the situation in Accra, the transport terminals and market areas at the Central Business District (CBD) for example needed to be permanently relocated.
He said Accra had sprawled and the old concept of trading or human activities converging at CBD was outmoded and needed to be changed.