Barely 48 hours after torrential rains lashed the Greater Accra Region, a three-storey residential structure under construction crumbled at Tabora Number 9, reigniting fears about the safety of uncompleted buildings in flood-vulnerable communities.
The seven-bedroom edifice, which was reportedly 90 per cent complete, succumbed to the elements around 9 p.m. on Monday, June 29, collapsing with a deafening roar that jolted neighbours from their sleep.
Fortunately, no lives were lost, but the incident has cast a harsh spotlight on what experts describe as a dangerous confluence of poor drainage, weak soil integrity, and unregulated construction practices.
According to the landlady, who spoke to Adom News’ Serwaa Prempeh at the scene, the family had only moments to escape.
She initially mistook the first signs of distress, falling masonry from a support pillar, for a falling avocado. But when her children investigated, the grim reality set in.
“When I asked my children to pick it up, they discovered it was actually a block that had fallen from one of the building’s pillars,” she narrated.
The family’s narrow escape aside, the disaster has left valuables and construction equipment buried under mountains of twisted metal and shattered concrete.
Rescue efforts are yet to begin, as residents await the arrival of NADMO officials to assess structural stability and coordinate recovery operations.
Preliminary assessments suggest the collapse may be linked to waterlogging caused by Monday’s downpour, which overwhelmed drainage systems in the area.
However, building and engineering experts are already calling for a full forensic investigation to determine whether substandard materials, design flaws, or non-compliance with zoning regulations played a more significant role.
This is not an isolated incident. Over the past two years, at least five similar collapses have been reported in Accra’s developing suburbs during the rainy season, raising urgent questions about enforcement of the country’s building codes.
The Tabora collapse, coming just weeks into the peak rainfall period, underscores the precarious state of many properties under construction on reclaimed or naturally low-lying land.
As of Tuesday morning, NADMO had not issued an official statement. Meanwhile, local authorities are under mounting pressure to conduct safety audits of all active construction sites in flood-prone enclaves across the capital.
For now, the Tabora community remains on edge, not just over the rubble on their doorstep, but over what this collapse signals for the hundreds of similar structures standing on fragile ground across Accra.
