News:
July 19, 2017
The Member of Parliament for Akan Constituency in Volta region, Abdul-Aziz Muniru has called for fire safety audit to be conducted on high rise buildings in the country as a matter of urgency.
He also advocate the executive to ensure that the Building Industry Regulatory Authority and Survey Council bills are introduced to Parliament as a matter of urgency for passage.
Mr Muniru made the call on the floor of Parliament in a statement on the lessons Ghana should learn from the Greenfell Tower Fire disaster in the UK.
He called for the extension of Fire regulations to cover residential buildings and emphasized the need to pay attention to in finding solutions to the implementation challenges facing the nation.
According to him the Grenfell Tower incident that claimed over 79 lives with many people presumed missing should be a wake up call for Ghana’s Ministry, Department, and Agencies to take a structural fire audit on existing structures for their safety preparedness.
He cited the recent fire disaster at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Central Stores and praised the Ghana National Fire Service for its swift intervention in putting it off before it could escalate to other facilities.
“Now the question here is that how safe are we in Ghana per our building rules and regulations, because we rely on our colonial masters British”
“We need an immediate thought and answer because Ghana climate differ from that of the UK which has regular snow” he queried.
Mr Muniru advocate for Ghana to rely on its own data and statistics based on research development on climate change due to the Greenhouse effects leading to rising temperatures above 5 degree Celsius across the globe.
The Speaker called for a multifaceted approach and invited the Minister for the Interior to brief Parliament
By Christian Kpesese