Stop work but continue if we do not come back
As one building tragedy after the other maims and traumatises people for life, claims lives and destroys properties, the question is: “What do those red bold writings to stop work on walls of uncompleted structures mean?” Do they mean stop work and come and see us in our air-conditioned offices or stop work but continue until you see us no more?
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A couple of weeks ago, another collapsed building tragedy provided an unfortunate platform for us to test the alertness to crises by institutions such as the fire service, police, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Red Cross Society and Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
After that, we were back to a public discourse on the same old issues of “stop work”, “no building permits”, “impunity”, “lawlessness”, “neglect of duty” and “unprofessionalism in our building industry”.
Whatever it is and whoever carries the blame when the unfortunate happens, the news of the collapsed seven-storey building which was under construction in Nii Boi Town near Abeka Lapaz in Accra was a sad tale too many to comprehend.
According to a Daily Graphic report of Friday, March 14, 2014, there has been several warnings by the AMA to the owner to stop work but he did not heed the warnings.
An assembly member for the Anorhuma Electoral Area, where the incident occurred, told the media that developers operated without permits and added that they had received a number of complaints from residents on how, sometimes, access roads were blocked with sand.
Corroborating the assertion by the assembly member, the chief executive of the AMA indicated that all the buildings located within Nii Boi Town, including the collapsed building, did not have permits. Really? Unbelievable as it sounds, what has the AMA done about such impunities?
The AMA’s chief executive admitted to the Daily Graphic that notices to discontinue with the construction of the seven-storey building were served on March 12, 2013, December 7, 2013 and February 26, 2014, but: “the owner was very reluctant and did not heed these notices”.
This is where I get frazzled with these same institutions that have been given the mandate to ensure the health and safety of residents, among other things. If for as many as three documented warnings people are still flouting the law with impunity and structures in a whole community are springing up lawlessly and the AMA looks on, then what moral right do they have to come and tell us what they are telling us when tragedy occurs?
Did the Achimota Melcom disaster of November 2012 serve any useful lessons to the AMA? It certainly does not seem so. There are too many of such neglects of duty happening around us.
Currently in my area, part of a clear access road which was left impassable by vehicles due to the marshy nature of that end of the road has been encroached on.
We woke up one late morning last year to find a dividing concrete wall securing the marshy end of the road. Some elders in the area reported the encroachment to the AMA right at the initial stages. As usual, they came with alacrity to mark “stop work” on the wall. Some residents dutifully made a parallel complaint to the Sate Housing Company (SHC), as the entire area falls under their purview. Unbelievably, the SHC authorities asked that they put their complaint in writing.
As a concerned citizen, I also went to the SHC office to make a report. Initially, I was asked to put the complaint in writing but was later told someone had come to make the same complaint and had been asked to write formally to them. It took some insistence before I got to see the head of the field task force for the area. He took details and promised to consult their area map and visit the site with his task force.
Days later, the AMA’s red markings to stop work had been painted over. Some four months on, gates have been fitted and barbed wires securely fixed on the walls. How safe are residents who are hemmed in and who dutifully pay ground rent to the SHC and property rates to the AMA?
After increasing its ground rent in 2009 by over 400 per cent without any prior warning, what benefits do residents enjoy from the SHC? The same with the AMA. In the event of unsafe structures and encroachment on public access roads, do the cries of residents not matter to these authorities?
The neglect of duties and failure by institutions which are supported by public funds to account to their stakeholders are perpetrating a culture of impunity. Residents are crucial stakeholders in all these issues and should, therefore, be treated as such in the scheme of things by these authorities. We do not have to wait for disasters before they show concern.