Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of the Gold Coast.

Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of the Gold Coast. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER V. HOUSING. Building operations have certainly shown a considerable degree of awakening activity as compared with the results seen in 1934. This progress, possibly, was more striking in Accra than elsewhere, although most centres record a certain amount of progress. The type of building erected in the larger centres shows a distinct improvement over past years. Cement block is the most popular building material. The people are well content to invest their savings in a well-built house. Construction may be delayed over a period of years, and completion may be the result of several distinct efforts between which material is collected for the next advance In the smaller centres pise de terre and mud brick are chiefly relied on, while in the villages wattle-and-daub dwellings predominate. These latter buildings have a comparatively short life. The municipalities of Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi and Sekondi have special staffs to control buildings and lay-outs. The building in the larger centres is controlled by officers of the Public Works Department, and in the smaller places the Health branch of the Medical Department assists. Several township lay-outs were demarcated by the Survey Department ; these chiefly applied to townships in close relationship to mining areas. Housing in such places is, as a rule, very poor. As soon as prospecting operations commence squatters tend to arrive in numbers and, erecting huts in the near vicinity, form the nucleus of an insanitary township. Such areas may be placed.under the Towns Ordinance, or controlled under the Mining Health Areas Ordinance, but the squatter has learned that the best way to escape control is to indulge in “ ribbon ” building along the roads. This method is hard to combat and the large straggling areas involved are difficult to define and control. Many of the larger mines are engaged in comprehensive building schemes for the housing of the mine labourers under hygienic conditions. Some ten per f’centurn of the inhabitants of Accra live in congested areas. Congested areas are, also, to be found in many of the older centres, e.g. Cape Coast and Sekondi. The social survey, undertaken by the Gold Coast Branch of the British Red Cross