Owner of Adentan collapsed building extended storey without permit – Engineering Council
Preliminary investigations by the Engineering Council of Ghana into the collapse of a three-storey building in the Adentan Municipality has revealed that the owner of the building extended the approved storey without permit.
A team from the Council, on a visit to the disaster scene on Friday, uncovered that the approved permit for the building was two-storey but the “owner extended it to three without permit.”
Mr Wise Ametefe, the Registrar of the Council, told the Ghana News Agency on Friday that the Council would commence detailed investigations to establish the cause of the disaster from Tuesday, May 9, 2023.
One person was reported dead on Friday after being trapped in the rubble from the collapsed building situated at Nanakrom in the Adentan Municipality Friday morning.
The tragedy occurred barely a week after a similar three-storey building collapsed at Madina in the Greater Accra Region – which reportedly killed one person and injured three others.
Mr Ametefe said the Council had directed workers at the site not to “disturb the composition of the rubbles” to facilitate smooth investigations.
“We are going to test the foundation to see whether it is a foundation problem. We will test the concrete and if possible, even the reinforcement,” he said.
Mr Ametefe said the Adentan Municipal Assembly told the Council that they had approved the building, but it appeared that the owner developed the structure beyond what was approved.
“The approved permit was two-storey, but the owner extended on his own to the third storey,” he said.
Mr Ametefe said the outcome of the investigations would establish if there was any foul play to inform possible sanctions.
The Engineering Council, which is under the Ministry of Works and Housing, regulates the practice of engineering and provide for regulated matters to secure the highest professional standards in the practice of the engineering.
Source: GNA
The municipality to be blamed if it exists at all. How would constructing the third storey proceed without municipal approval? Does the municipality exist?
And so adding a single storey more caused a catastrophic failure in an unintended stress-test? The fundamentals must’ve been inadequate ab initio.
These assemblies just collect bribes and allow a lot of malpractices to go on , this area under discussion is becoming a mess, come further towards the place they call east legon hills near the cancer hospital and u would see how people are building with impunity on the areas demarcated for roads and in the process blocking the waterways, the assembly would later claim no knowledge of it and as usual shift blame, corruption at these assemblies is rife!!!!
The assemblies should also check those building on roads and waterways in that same municipality around the cancer hospital area, it is a menace that would also lead to catastrophic consequences and must be curtailed.
How such builders get permission to undertake these projects is strange. The municipal assembly should wake up