Built Environment Clinic to be held on December 18 at Rawlings Park

Engineering and building professionals in Ghana will hold the first ever Built Environment Clinic on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at the Rawlings Park in Accra.

The Built Environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings and parks or green space to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply, drainage and road networks and power supply.

The Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE) in collaboration with the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, the Ghana Institute of Architects and the Ghana Institute of Planners and other related professionals are the institutions holding the clinic.

As cities grow they are confronted with many challenges including poor regulation, lack of enforcement, lack of adherence to regulation resulting often in unnatural disasters. There are offers and sale of watershed. People build indiscriminately.

Also, dumping of refuse in waterways is the order of the day, building without advice from experts continue to be our bane.

Dubbed the “Built Environment Clinic”, the forum is expected to bring out issues on the built environment and provide solutions that will address concerns regarding these recurring issues.

Explaining the rationale behind the environment clinic, the President of the Ghana Institute of Engineers, Ing. Magnus Lincoln Quarshie said: “It is the conviction of the  Built Environment Professionals that most of the issues in the built-environment domain with respect to unnatural disasters, land acquisition, land guards, building permits, design and construction, enforcement of planning and building regulations, etc will be better resolved if the critical engagement of all the key stakeholders is engendered to provide the appropriate and necessary insight into the dynamics of the built environment”. '

He said the general public is the major key holder and as professionals initiators of the forum have decided to set a day aside to engage the public.

“We are therefore organizing this first “Built Environment Clinic” at the Rawlings Park, Accra and later in Kumasi, to bring to the notice of the general public issues that bring about these disasters and offer appropriate and professional advice to forestall future occurrences”, he adds.

The interactive Clinic will bring together those women and men around the Central Business District, I.e. Makola, the banking enclave, ministries area, officials from NADMO, AMA officials including the Mayor, Assembly men and women, MPs, traders and commuters in and around the Rawlings park to listen, ask questions and get professional precautions from experts made up of Engineers, Surveyors, Architects, Planners and other related professionals.

"As professionals we have had the rare privilege to obtain the requisite training, knowledge and skills to bring this to bear on the quality of life of Ghanaians. We are here in this country of ours to provide expertise to the populace", Ing. Lincoln Quarshie said.

Dr. Stephen Yirenkyi, Ghana Institute of Planners. 

Attending the maiden clinic to also sensitize the public will be The President of the Ghana Institute of Architects, Arc. Joseph Hayford, the President of the Institute of Surveyors, Mr. J.T. Odametey and Dr. Stephen Yirenkyi, Ghana Institute of Planners.