Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), on Thursday held an investiture ceremony for Mr Kwabena Bempong, the new president, at their just-ended 53rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Takoradi in the Western Region.
The five-day event was on the theme “Resilient engineering for national development.”
At a banquet to climax the conference, the immediate Past President, Prof. Rev. Charles A. Adams, decorated Mr Bempong with the chain of office. Later, the Supervising High Court Judge, Justice Sedina Agbememava, led the new GhIE President to swear the oath of office.
Outlining his vision, Mr Bempong, Chief Executive Officer of Associated Consultants, noted that, the recent devastation caused by earthquakes in Turkey, with magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, should serve as a reflection for Ghanaian engineers.
He asked “how many buildings in Accra will survive a moderate earthquake of 5.5 let alone anything between strong and major, that is 6.1 to 6.9 or 7 to 7.9?”
Historically, he said, Ghana recorded the first earthquake in June 1939 with a magnitude of 6.9 on Richter scale, with 17 lives lost and 133 people injured, noting that, southern Ghana had a history of earthquakes.
Mr Bempong continued “do our infrastructure systems have resilience built into them? How would we fare in the event of a natural disaster like an earthquake, especially in Accra? Are we adhering to standards and specifications?
“Will our critical infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, various services, roads and bridges have the ability to withstand such disruptive events and to rebound after certain disaster?” he queried
Mr Bempong said as professionals, engineers were required to rise and defend the people instead of being spectators, adding “we must think, act and help shape national dialogue on critical issues staring us in the face.”
GhIE, he told conference, had in the past criticised, and written about some of the engineering challenges Ghana faced, but, argued that, “the time to act is now – offering solutions to the myriad of problems facing us.”
The GhIE president prayed that the group would be ready to engineer the country into prosperity.
Mr Bempong also pledged to support the growth of membership of GhIE and welfare, with the mission to bringing all engineering practitioners under one umbrella for “our voices to be heard and respected.”
The new GhIE vision, he said, would anchor on UN universal call to action in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and that, sustainable and affordable housing would be pursued to lead to health, education and economic opportunities.
A digitisation agenda for technical divisions, Mr Bempong believed, must increase the resilience engineering whereby GhIE should be able to monitor incoming situations, anticipate the occurrence of future events and learn from the past.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI