The Executive Director of the Dominion Leaders Foundation, an affiliate of Germany’s BFW, Martha Akoibia Anang, is making a passionate call for Ghana to reimagine its approach to housing safety and public health.
Martha Anang is proposing a nationwide housing audit, funded through the property tax system, as a critical measure to mitigate avoidable health hazards and structural defects that threaten the safety of people.
The Executive Director of Dominion Leaders Foundation championed this campaign in an interview with The High Street Journal on the sidelines of the 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors of Ghana (ABCECG).
Public Health Begins at Home
Martha Anang, in her remarks, underscored that “every individual in Ghana is a national property,” hence the state must be deeply concerned about the environment in which its citizens live.
She highlighted the invisible dangers lurking in many old residential buildings, which include outdated plumbing systems, unseen electrical faults, and weak structures that silently threaten public health and safety.
She cited that the fact that things are working does not mean there is no fault. She underscored cases of decades-old water pipes still in use in many households, warning that these aging systems expose families to contaminated water and subsequent illnesses.
“We are drinking from it, brushing our teeth from it, getting sick, and then it transcends to the National Health Insurance Scheme,” she noted, adding that preventable illnesses are placing an undue financial burden on national healthcare.
The Solution: Institutionalizing Housing Inspections
The solution, according to Anang, lies in a systematic housing audit, which she envisions to be a deliberate, policy-driven exercise where structures aged 10 years and above are evaluated by professionals to determine their integrity.
To her, the exercise will help identify faults and defects that occupants may not be privy to but threaten their lives. Where necessary, she says, simple but lifesaving reinforcements like support pillars can be installed, or aging components like pipes and earth wires replaced.
“Looking at some of these outdated structures, when we go around and identify it’s outdated, okay, let’s put a pillar here, let’s put a pillar here to sustain the structure so that it won’t collapse on people,” she proposed.
She continued, “But all these things are left to the mercy of the individual, who at times doesn’t even have the money to do it. And people have the money to do it, but they don’t even know that it is endangering their lives.”
The Case for Funding Through Property Taxes
To make the housing audit a reality, Martha Anang proposed that a small percentage of property rates can be earmarked specifically to fund renovation and retrofitting works, particularly for low-income households.
This, she said, would serve as a preventive strategy to curb greater national losses caused by collapsing buildings, fire outbreaks, or increased public health expenditure.
“If a one percent or something is added to the property rates, it will be given to them [contractors or associations] to do some of these renovations,” she proposed.
The idea is not just to inspect buildings, but to act on the findings, thereby curtailing major problems before they explode into national disasters.
The Role of ABCECG and Public Participation
This call, Martha Anang says it’s an initiative ABCECG can champion with authorities, industry players, and policy makers.
She challenges the ABCECG, the Ministry of Works and Housing, and local authorities to take the lead in transforming this vision into actionable policy, backed by public funding and community support.
“The association must take the lead to make it a policy so that if a one percent or something is added to the property rates, then if it’s added, it will be given to them to do some of these renovations to curtail some major problems for the safety of the nation,” she suggested.
The call objective of this proposal is about saving lives, protecting health, and building a nation where citizens can live in safety and dignity. Martha Akoibia Anang’s call is to ensure that Ghana does not wait for another disaster. The time for a housing audit revolution is now, she says.
