The collapse of the 5-storey Achimota Melcom Shopping Centre on Wednesday 7 November,

2012 was undesirable blow that came upon us, as a country resulting in the loss of lives,
injury to many and loss of property. Words cannot easily express the ripple effect from this
collapse.
The Ghana Institute of Safety & Environmental Professionals (GhISEP) joins the entire
nation to bemoan those who have lost their lives and our hearts goes out to their families. We
seize the opportunity to commend the rescue team, emergency responders, volunteers and
medical staff that brought their patriotism to bear, to save lives, rescue those trapped under
rubbles of concrete beams and columns, block work, steel trusses etc., with speed, efficiency
and coordinated effort. The response to the incident was impressive and a success considering
high number of people surviving the incident and the fact that essential equipment for such
operations were not immediately available.
The recent Melcom disaster and other recurring incidents of national concern such as market
fires, building collapse etc should be a wake-up call for us as a nation. There are several
lessons that can be learned from events proceeding to the collapse of the building as well as
the emergency response to the incident.
Over the last few years, the nation has recorded major disasters from building collapses and
the question is whether, as a nation we have learnt any lessons from them at all. Below are
some reported past incidents involving building collapses:

5th
January
2011

Dormaa
Ahenkro,
Brong
Ahafo
Two persons died on the spot and three others seriously injured, when a two-storey building
under construction collapsed on them at Antwirifu, near Dormaa-Ahenkro, in Brong Ahafo
Region.

5th
June
2010

Spintex
Road,
Tema
A four-storey building situated along the Spintex Road, near Tema, collapsed-stirring
conflicting reports on the number of casualties. While some eyewitnesses feared as many as
six persons, including a four-year-old boy, could have been buried under the debris, officials
of the National Fire Service said only two masons, sustained injuries and had to receive
treatment at the Sakumono Hospital

31st
January
2010

Tarkwa,
Western
Region
Three persons were killed when part of a five-storey hotel building under construction
collapsed on some workers in Tarkwa.

9th
October
2009
Ashaiman,
Accra
Four persons lost their lives when an uncompleted two-storey building collapsed on them at
Zenu, a suburb of Ashaiman

14th
August
2008

Kejetia,
Kumasi
Pandemonium broke out at Kejetia Terminal in Kumasi on Thursday when the middle section
of a two-storey building suddenly collapsed.The incident which happened in the afternoon
affected 40 stalls and shops and although there were no casualties, all merchandise in stock
were destroyed.


6th
March
2008

Danyame,
Kumasi
A 27-year-old man died on the spot when a two storey building which he and his colleagues
were constructing collapsed at Denyame, a suburb of Kumasi.

15th
December
2006

Asafo,
Kumasi
Kumasi, Dec. 16, GNA - A four-storey office building complex with car park under
construction at the O&A Travel and Tour terminal at Asafo-Labour collapsed around
midnight.

13th
December
2002

Accra
Four-storey Building Collapses In Accra. An observant fire officer saved hundreds of lives in
Accra by evacuating a four-storey building moments before it collapsed. The collapse of the
uncompleted building, located near the Central Post Office could have resulted in several
deaths and injuries if the fire officer had not organized the evacuation.

23rd
April
2000

Madina,
Accra.
Two people were reported missing and 16 others injured, eight of them were serious, when a
three storey building they were working on suddenly collapsed on them at Madina.
With these numerous past examples aforementioned, we have proven that we don't have
memory when it comes to disasters like these. We tend to react with emotions in the heat of
the disaster and then forget soon after without serious actions to prevent future recurrence. If
these past trend of building collapse are anything to go by, then we should all be worried that
more people are going to be trapped under buildings and other structures in the foreseeable
future if we do not do the right things from now on to prevent the incident.
It is our understanding that investigation into the collapse is still ongoing. Ghana Institute of
Safety & Environmental Professionals believe that this is a systemic failure and calls for a
thorough enquiry into contributing factors of the collapse building including the
organisational, technical and administrative root causes. Whilst we wait for the outcome of
the investigation, there are a number of questions that we expect to be answered by the
investigation:
Was the soil quality confirmed through a comprehensive subsoil investigation?
Was permit acquired for this building? If yes, was the necessary due diligence carried out
before the permit was issued?
Was the building designed and built for retail trading

Was
the
building
design
approved?
Was the building built according to design and the provisions in the building code?
Were the right and quality materials used for the construction?
Was it built by a qualified and competent person(s)
Were all the required due diligence as per the building code carried out during the
construction?

 What were the oversight arrangements put in place by AMA?

Was the building assessed and certified for habitation upon completion?
Was fire permit obtained? Was building inspection part of the certification process?
Why were reported cracks in the building reported by employees ignored by Melcom?
Did Melcom carry out a modification to the building when it was acquired? If yes, what sort
of change management process was followed and was the change in design approved?
Were regular safety inspections on the building carried out?
Often in Ghana, we blame the poor individual whose structure is involved for everything but
the problem goes beyond individuals. The causes to such incident, we believe are rooted deep
in our governance structure and organisational arrangements. Persons whose acts or
omissions will be established as the cause of this collapse should be prosecuted by a court of
competent jurisdiction and not just compel them to vacate their posts as being suggested in
some section of the media.
In the interim, we recommend the following actions:
1. An audit is carried to confirm the structural integrity of all high-rise buildings in the
country to avert further potential collapses.
2. Enact proactive laws that would make it mandatory for all high-rise buildings to be built by
only qualified building professionals at all stages of the construction process.
3. Proper and rigorous supervision and monitoring before, during and after construction be
carried out to ensure that all high-rise buildings are built according to design and
specifications.
4. Our byelaws and regulations on building should be critically looked at with the view to
making amendments to deter Estate developers from engaging untrained and wayside
technicians with limited knowledge in design, planning and materials.
5. Government must invest into both workplace safety and public safety by way of
developing regulations and ensuring it enforcement to guarantee the safety of the citizenry
both at the workplaces and in public places.
6. Death traps such as the unoccupied and abandoned Pollux Hotel, opposite Kumasi
Asokwa Police station are immediately demolished.

OA TRAVEL TERMINAL
Kumasi, Dec. 16, GNA - Massive rescue operation is underway to retrieve the bodies of persons
believed to have been buried in the rubble of a four-storey building that collapsed at Asafo in Kumasi,
on Friday night. The car park and office building complex, which is under construction at the O&A
Travel and Tour terminal at Asafo-Labour is said to have collapsed around midnight.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that the victims were passengers and visitors waiting to pick their
relatives from the bus terminal. Cars and other valuable items are also said to have been buried in the
rubble.
Rescue workers from the Fire Service, Police and other private construction firms as well as
sympathisers were busily working at the scene to retrieve the trapped victims. The Police are unable
to give the number of people who might have been trapped under the rubble but eyewitnesses and
residents in the area say about eight people were believed to be under the building before it
collapsed.
When GNA visited the scene a large crowd of sympathisers had gathered while heavy duty rescue
machines
were
in
operation.
The cause of the collapse of the building is not yet known. The Managing Director of the O&A Travel
and Tours Company Limited, Mr Opoku Agyeman was not immediately available for comments but the
Police have begun investigations into the cause of the tragedy.

The collapse of the 6-storey Achimota Melcom Shopping Centre building on Wednesday
November 7, 2012 was unwelcome shock that came upon us, as a country with its
attendant loss of lives, injury to many (both staff and early shoppers), loss of property
and many other uncertainties. The ripples we cannot easily quantify as some will go into
the
distant
future.
The Ghana Institution of Surveyors joins the entire nation to mourn those who have lost
their lives and express our grief and condolences, to their families. We also want to
identify ourselves with those who got different degrees of injury and hope and pray they
get healed quickly and no permanent disability arises out of the accident.
We, of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors take the opportunity to congratulate the
rescue team and medical staff who engaged the assignment, to save lives, rescue those
trapped under debris of concrete beams and columns, block work, steel trusses etc., with
speed, efficiency and effort. Congratulations and our nation is grateful to you. May God
bless
you?
In our assessment, this is a national disaster which must engage our attention.
We, of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors are most worried and nervous of this Achimota
Melcom occurrence, but not only that alone, but the safety of all the numerous multistorey buildings above 2 storey floors that are springing up within Accra City and other
cities in the Country, most often Commercial buildings which have not met structural
design standard. The worse of all, are remodelling of old existing structures into 4storey, 5-storey or more, without adequate examination of the existing structure to find
out whether they are structurally sound and whether the necessary structural additions
are
made.
What we find and very often is the case is that you see a foundation started, which from
our professional point of view is for a single storey building or maximum a 2-storey
building. With time the ground floor is completed, they may wait for a while and add
another
floor,
then
another
and
another.
If you take the trouble to visit the construction site, it is under a mason, being
supervised by the building owner or the investor who very often may be a lay person to
construction, let alone a high rise building and always ensuring that there is high cost
saving by using minimal reinforcement steel, minimal cement for concrete. Sometimes
they even produce the blocks on the site in order to save cost.
The end products of most of these efforts are always a danger waiting to happen, both to
users
and
to
the
investment
itself.
We regret to mention that today, it is Melcom Achimota but we are very confident there
are
so
many
of
such
dangerous
structures
waiting
for
their
day.
Ghana is so blessed with the built environment professionals, from Surveyors, Architects,
Engineers, and Planners etc. However, they are not always involved in the design and the
construction of these buildings, especially when it is a private effort and informal sector.
Every building requires structural soundness, meaning that columns and beams designed

are strong enough to carry more than the maximum loads that will ever be imposed on
the structure. These loads include the self weight of all the materials within the
building and other imposed loads during use, like human beings coming in and
out (in the case of this shop) , the goods being sold, equipment like trolleys
and
the
vibrations
they
generate
during
use
etc.
Hence, a Structural Engineer must carefully design for strength of columns, beams, roof
trusses
etc.
The Architect must design to plan for space and space utilisation, circulation within the
building,
aesthetic
etc.
Surveyors are needed to ensure that the building is located as planned, ensure
the verticality of the structure as this has dire consequences on safety of the
building, proper costing of the building and insist that what is planned for in
cost is what is done (cost saving, not cost cutting), and then the structure is
kept
in
good
conditions
by
proper
maintenance.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1)As a matter of urgency we, as an Institution are ready to assist by way of providing
our professional inputs to the Committee set up by the Government to investigate the
incident.
2)Secondly, we recommend that the authorities must bring all institutions involved in the
granting of permit to order. Ensuring that these authorities are adequately resourced
with both personnel and equipment to provide this very important function.
We as a people must also encourage the demolition of all structures built without
Building
Permit.
3)We suspect that there may be a lot of other similar Buildings within Accra and other
cities waiting for their day of collapse. A national Task Force must be set up to inspect
existing structures to determine their strength and possible life span remaining and
those found inadequate must be demolished. There is also the need to start doing
deformation measurements on all high rise buildings to know whether they are sinking,
tilting
or
swinging.
4) The Government must not only educate developers and the public to use professionals
in this field but must pass a law to make it mandatory to do so.
5)All buildings are required by law to be insured against all these risks and more
particularly Commercial buildings. The law must be enforced. The process of insurance
must require the examination of basic parameters of the structure, this will also help in
quality
control.
6)The Building Inspection Division of the Metropolitan and District Assemblies must be
resourced especially with professionals to ensure that our building code is observed.

Finally the Ghana Institution of Surveyors could help, if given the chance to be part of
the team of experts in the built environment to produce the Terms of Reference for the
investigative Body that will look into the cause(s) of collapse of the 6-Storey Melcom
Building at Achimota and any future steps to stop the recurrence of this preventable
national disaster.