The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has announced plans to begin a countrywide assessment of old buildings, following a series of building collapses in Cape Coast that have left many residents displaced.
Five separate structures have crumbled in the Central Region city within a short period, prompting renewed concerns over structural integrity nationwide.
Richard Amo Yartey, Director of NADMO’s Inspectorate Unit, said the initiative aims to avert future tragedies linked to neglected buildings. He made the remarks during an interview with Citi News when NADMO delivered relief items to flood victims and those affected by the building collapses in Cape Coast.
“Across the country, we don’t have structures collapsing all over the country. But then, this is an eye-opener, a wake-up call for us to start doing some assessment on very old structures which have not seen maintenance for a very long while. So that we don’t wake up to hear some of these things happening in other places in Ghana. Cape Coast is going to start, and it has to be replicated in other parts of the country to ensure that old structures that have not seen maintenance for many years do not collapse suddenly, with people dying. It’s very sad that we lost people,” he said.
While the organisation prepares to roll out the structural audit, flooding across parts of the Central Region continues to worsen. NADMO says the number of affected municipalities has increased from 11 to 14 between Thursday and Friday.
According to the latest assessments, over 5,000 people have been impacted, with 124 individuals displaced after buildings collapsed in flood-prone areas of Cape Coast.
Kwesi Dawood, the Central Regional Director of NADMO, noted that some of the newly affected districts are also areas known for illegal mining. He described the region’s current condition as dire and appealed for more relief supplies to support ongoing interventions.
