Foundation failure, poor design, poor supervision, non-adherence to standard regulations, and use of substandard materials accounted for the recent collapse of buildings in the country.

Other factors include retrofitting and renovation, where inappropriate structural changes are made to a building.

Brigadier General Francis Vib Sanziri, the Acting National Co-ordinator of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), said this at a media briefing in Accra to highlight the Organisation’s investigations into the recent collapse of buildings, especially in the Greater Accra Region.

He said their investigations into collapsed buildings since 2012 till date, revealed pure man-made causes rather than natural causes and appealed to enforcing institutions and agencies to put in measures to streamline issues to ensure that the right things were done.

Brig. Gen. Sanziri said NADMO’s technical advisory committees were still investigating and would make appropriate recommendations to state institutions with responsibility for enforcement to mitigate such occurrences.

He said NADMO did not have enforcing roles but it had advisory roles as to what to do to avert future occurrences and urged the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce their by-laws to allow the system to work effectively.

“NADMO can only draw attention to anomalies for the appropriate institutions to take up the issues and to ensure that their recommendations are adhered to,” he said.

Brig. Gen. Sanziri said while they wait for the technical advisory committees findings, NADMO would like to urge the public to ensure their buildings were designed and supervised by qualified engineering practitioners capable of interpreting the design intent.

They are to ensure that multi-storey buildings and heavy loaded buildings are strictly designed and supervised by qualified professional engineers and architects, while lightly loaded structures must adhere to the Building Guide formulated by NADMO, he said.

Brig Gen. Sanziri said the NADMO Building Guide had been distributed to MMDAs to assist those who wanted to put up light buildings and urged the district assemblies to insist that everybody got building permits before initiating a project.