Time to consider affordable, alternative materials for housing — GhIE President
The President of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), Kwabena Bempong, has outlined alternative sustainable housing building technologies that are cost-effective and give true meaning to affordable housing in Ghana.
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He said with the rising cost of building impacting on rent, it was time to use alternative affordable building materials to make housing affordable and help the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 11 as enjoined by the United Nations.
“Housing is defined as unaffordable if more than 30 per cent of the monthly or annual income of a household is spent on housing,” he stated.
Delivering the 52nd Presidential Address to members of the GhIE last Tuesday, Mr Bempong said as construction costs rose and urbanisation accelerated, the housing market tended to cater primarily for the affluent, excluding individuals in the low to medium-income category from accessing a decent means of accommodation.
Speaking on the theme: “Sustainable Housing Supply with Alternative Building Technologies”, the President of GhIE said the government had no business building houses.
Instead, he explained that the government’s role was to provide the necessary policy and right institutional framework, provide easy access to affordable lands, finance, building materials and basic infrastructure.
Also, governments should ensure that social housing is pursued to ensure affordability for low-income workers as required by the SDG 11 which enjoins countries to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Presidential address
The Executive Director of the GhIE, David Kwatia Nyante, explained that the GhIE’s Presidential Address is the most significant event that transpires during the term of the President of the institution. He stated that each president was required to deliver an address concerning a subject in which he or she is an authority.
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The event attracted a host of dignitaries within the building, construction and engineering space as well as some past executives of the GhIE.
Before the presidential address, an exhibition is usually held on a theme, and this year, a two-day exhibition on “Sustainable Housing Supply with Alternative Building Technologies,” took place at the forecourt of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on January 27 and 28.
The GhIE President stated that the high cost of rent and accommodation was largely due to the fact that about 80 per cent of Ghana’s building materials were imported, which was subject to global economic trends such as commodity pricing, high labour costs, geopolitical wars and others.
To make building projects affordable and reduce the cost of rent, he recommended the use of affordable building materials such as the use of bio-based materials such as timber, bamboo and improvement on non-renewable building materials such as green cement, pulverised fly ash, blast furnace slag, calcined clay, burnt rice husk and natural pozzolans, among others, for the building of houses in Ghana.
Mr Bempong also recommended alternative building technologies such as Rammed Earth Building, Interlocking Bricks Construction, Reinforced Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Foam Building System as well as Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum and Light Gauge Steel Framed Structures (LGFS).
The Executive Chairman of Regimanuel Group, Emmanuel Botchwey, who chaired the function, said Mr Bempong’s presentation had underscored the transformative power of embracing sustainable practices.
“The incorporation of alternative building technologies not only promises to mitigate environmental impact but also offers a pathway to more resilient, affordable and inclusive housing options.
The insights presented on alternative sustainable building technologies and the urgency of addressing the housing deficit underscore the need for collaborative efforts from all sectors”, Mr Emmanuel Botchwey added.