Story: Mary Ankrah
A DEPUTY MINISTER of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH), Dr Hannah Louisa Bisiw, has called on Ghanaians and building contractors to use improved local building materials as a viable option for solving the country’s housing deficit.
She also appealed to the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), to partner with the private sector agencies under the new public private-partnership (PPP) to explore innovative ways to use local materials in the design and construction of buildings to reduce the cost of construction in the country.
This, she said, would enable the government to achieve its objective of increasing the manufacturing and usage of local materials to 60 per cent by 2015.
According to Dr Bisiw, the use of local building materials would help boost the economy as a critical factor in tackling poverty, job creation and social stabilisation to improve housing delivery in the country.
She made this known at a seminar held by the ministries of Water Resources Works and Housing, and Environment Science and Technology, in conjunction with the Architects Registration Council of Ghana in Accra.
The seminar was on the theme: “The use of local building materials in building and construction”.
It sought to bring together stakeholders of the building and construction industry to identify the challenges affecting the effective use of local building materials and define steps to whip up the interest of entrepreneurs to invest in the production of local building materials.
Speaking at the seminar, Dr Bisiw observed that building materials constituted about 60 per cent of construction cost, and improvement in the building material industry formed the basis of strategies to improve shelter delivery.
She, however, said the building and construction market was characterised by high cost of materials mostly imported and in limited supply across the country, adding that “the basic need for shelter by the masses at an affordable price depended on the availability of durable building materials at a reasonable price”.
The Minister of Environment Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, in a speech read on her behalf, indicated that currently, the housing stock stood at around 1.5 million and it was of “dire consequence to the growth of the economy to improve upon this deficit”.
Due to this major constraint, she said, “housing demand had exceeded housing supply of which the average cost of two-bedroom house costs between $45,000 and $75,000 which is beyond the purchasing power of the average family”.
She explained that one of the contributory factors to the high cost of building was the high dependency on foreign imports and gave an assurance that the government would explore all means to assist producers of local building materials to produce in large quantities to meet future demands.
Ms Ayittey entreated Ghanaians to use local building materials, which hold the best prospects for the climate challenges in the country.
Ghana produces a variety of raw building materials including pozzolana, clay, cane, bamboo and other products which could be used for construction and building of houses.
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