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The Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) has begun regional town hall meetings to create awareness about the looming national danger that the country could face, as a result of improper layout of communities in the country.
Speaking at one of such regional town hall meetings at Dambai in the Oti Region, the President of the GIA, Mr Foster Osae- Akonnor, said his outfit had dedicated the regional town hall meetings to collaborate with the Local Government Authorities to ensure that Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) with support from GIA would ensure effective layout of communities in the country.
He expressed concern about the lack of architects in most of the MDAs, and called for effective and proper planning and design of communities at regional and district levels.
He said it was unfortunate that in the 21st century buildings in communities were badly laid out as a result of not engaging professional architects to effectively plan communities to meet modern community development standards.
According to him, GIA had observed that the problems associated with putting up structures including houses without planning, design and effective usage of space was due to the fact that assemblies had only planning officers without architects to facilitate effective layout of communities.
Mr Osae-Akonnor said the services of architects were not expensive as people always believed, and added that it was important for assemblies to employ planning officers and architects to lay out the communities for the benefit of the present and future generations.
He expressed worry that nine municipal and district assemblies in the Oti Region, had no architects to help implement lay out plans, while the Volta Region with eighteen assemblies had only one architect.
The President of GIA said the flooding situation being experienced in the country at places where there were no flooding records in the past was due to the building of houses on places earmarked for roads, markets and recreational centres, therefore leading to flooding and collapse of buildings that lacked relevant architectural inputs.
The Oti Regional Minister, Dr Joshua Makubu, commended the GIA for the crucial roles it played in the development of the country over the years, and urged chiefs to consult experts and the assemblies whenever they leased land to developers in order to ensure effective planning of communities.
