Ensuring Safety/Enforcing Building Standards

Following the collapse of the MELCOM building in Accra  nearly a decade ago, public  consciousness  started building up on the need to engage the services of professionals in the design and construction process and to ensure the adherence of structural standards and the promotion of safety of users within public spaces.

Bad concrete mix and poor workmanship were believed to have caused the collapse of the MELCOM shop where several deaths and injuries were recorded.

Another building has just collapsed.

This time it’s a church building, which is supposed to be not only the physical and spiritual home of the congregation, but more importantly a place of refuge and an assemblage for God's people!

Although it is too early to determine what caused the collapse of that building, which belongs to the Church of Prosperity in Akyem Batabi in the Eastern Region.


Available information shows that the construction of that 3-storey church building  started in  1996 and it may have had structural challenges, resulting in the collapse. There is the need to always engage the services of professionals to handle our physical projects, and to   ensure that standards and specifications are followed.

Death toll is rising as rescue efforts are still ongoing. 

We hear the Head Pastor, who is physically fragile at the moment and his elders have been invited by the police to help in investigations.

Definitely, whoever designed the building and the contractor will not have it easy, either.

About the Author: 
Pastor Alexander Agyapong is with the Works and Physical Development Department of Valley View University and a member of the Ghana Real Estates Professionals Association (GREPA).