Accra, Aug. 3, GNA – The Office of Head of Civil Service (OHCS) has honoured Mr Sylvanus Adzornu, the Director at the Department of Rural Housing, under the Ministry of Works and Housing, for his persistent promotion of locally-made materials in the housing sector.
The OHCS recognised Mr Adzornu’s role in promoting and advocating for the use of locally-made interlocking bricks (compressed earth bricks) which has proven to reduce the cost of housing significantly.
The Civil Service Awards celebrated distinguished civil servants who had contributed immensely to the growth of the civil service.
It was on theme: “Adapting to automation, artificial intelligence, e-governance: the civil service in contemporary governance.”
The brick, which is an alternative to the cement block, was designed by engineers at the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) as part of efforts to reduce the cost of building and contribute to addressing the country’s housing challenges.
Under Mr Adzornu’s supervision, a team of engineers and architects designed eco-friendly brick houses, ranging from one to five bedrooms to suit Ghana’s climate. The local materials and design ensured energy efficiency by reducing heat transmission into the building, and in effect, making savings on electricity required for cooling.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Adzornu described the honour as testament to the advocacy works of the Department towards the adoption of locally-made materials for housing.
He said, compressed earth bricks had proven to be environmentally-friendly alternative to cement blocks while helping to reduce the cost of building.
In addition, they are helping in decarbonizing housing and supporting adaptation to climate change.
Mr Adzornu said the building materials used were locally-sourced with the objective to effectively use Ghana’s earth, limited friendly and green resources to contribute to addressing the rising housing gap.
“As we promote sustainable development, this is actually what we need: to be able to achieve that purpose,” he said, adding the locally-made brick “decarbonises and the emissions of harmful gasesare less.”
He also called for a blend in the sourcing of building material in order to reduce the reliance on conventional materials in favour of the nonconventional to reduce the cost of building.
Mr Adzornu revealed that the Ministry for Works, Housing and Water Resources had approved the use of the compressed earth bricks in Housing Project and called for more investments to expand their adoption and use.
He called for more training to build the capacities of Regional Managers of the Departments in addition to the creation of District Housing Units at Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to promote the use of local materials in housing for both rural and urban areas as local economic development strategies.
The Department of Rural Housing is a public institution mandated to develop projects and programmes to increase access to safe, decent and affordable housing in rural and peri-urban areas.
It also contributes to policy frameworks in the housing sector and facilitates the dissemination of creative and innovative research findings in the production and use of improved indigenous building materials.
GNA