Professor Emmanuel Adinyira has cautioned that Ghana’s development is headed towards what he calls “dangerous progress” if construction projects continue to ignore the safety and wellbeing of the communities that host them.
Delivering his inaugural lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) Great Hall on Thursday, August 28, 2025, Professor Adinyira presented a policy brief titled “Beyond the Fence: Transferring Health, Safety, and Environment Knowledge from Construction Sites to Host Communities.”
The lecture, chaired by KNUST Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, was attended by Professors of the university, Colleagues, Staff, Students, and Traditional Leaders, signaling the national importance of the issues raised.
Professor Adinyira warned that Ghana is making “limited progress towards achieving 41.1% of the SDG targets, with a worsening performance across 26% of them,” citing the 2024 Sustainable Development Report.
He stressed that Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) challenges are at the heart of the problem: “The contamination of our water and soil with heavy metals due to galamsey, the potential ban on exporting our crops, the pressure on our healthcare facilities due to accidents, and environmental pollution with impacts that will outlive our children’s children all show that HSE has a direct impact on our very survival.”
He lamented the paradox in Ghana’s construction industry where contractors strictly follow safety rules on site, but neighboring communities are left vulnerable.
“We celebrate physical infrastructure as a sign of progress, but neglect the invisible, long-term infrastructure of safety knowledge, environmental stewardship, and community resilience,” he said.
“We build bridges but fail to connect with the people. We deliver highways but leave behind no health literacy. We enforce the use of protective equipment for workers, but we fail to raise awareness among families living near the site.”
From his research, Professor Adinyira revealed that 26 construction site hazards such as open holes, unsafe electrical exposure, heavy lifting, poor ventilation, and chemical use are commonplace in Ghanaian communities. Yet, unlike on sites where trained staff respond quickly to emergencies, ordinary residents lack the basic knowledge to act.
“When a worker faints on site from dehydration, he or she is immediately attended to. But when a child from the nearby community collapses from the same dehydration, parents and neighbours do not know what to do,” he illustrated.
Professor Adinyira proposed a framework for transferring safety knowledge beyond site boundaries through “safety demonstrations in communities, social media, and mass media.”
He added that effective transfer relies on collaboration, trust, local content inclusion, and policy mandates.
“What if every construction project educated and empowered its host community? What if HSE did not stop at the site gate?” he asked.
Professor Adinyira called on contractors, government, and academia to act decisively.
“Construction must serve as a platform for empowerment, not just physical development,” he urged.
Specifically, he recommended that the Public Procurement Authority include community HSE knowledge transfer in tender documents, government should pass the long-delayed Occupational Safety and Health Bill, and the Ghana Education Service must educate young people on good and bad HSE behaviour.
Closing his lecture, Professor Adinyira reminded his audience that progress without safety is unsustainable.
“Safety is not a gadget but a mindset,” he declared, challenging Ghana to reimagine development not only in terms of roads and bridges, but in safer, healthier, and more resilient communities.
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