The Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI) opened in Takoradi on Thursday on the theme 'Climate adaptation strategies in sustainable infrastructure development-the role of the construction sector players.' In his address, the Chairman of GhCCI, Emmanuel Tetteh Martey, said the theme captured the need for the construction sector players to go beyond brick and mortar and adopt sustainable and innovative practices to offset climate change impacts.
Extreme weather conditions for example, he noted, threatened road infrastructure and buildings and suggested that situation demanded a change in project designs which were ecologically friendly, saying that, " climate resilience is no longer an option but a necessity." Martey said "the role of the construction industry cannot be under stated.
We are uniquely positioned to build mitigating effects of climate change during this transition toward sustainable practices." Government, environmentalist, planners, the academia and policymakers, he told the conference, must lead by example, especially with the upsurge of illegal mining that threatened environment and caused land degradation.
He indicated that the industry could not remain indifferent to galamsey and needed to collaborate with relevant bodies to find sustainable solutions to the menace.