Rainfall challenges and strategies to improve housing construction in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Ghana

Abstract

Even though elsewhere in the Western world and the gulf regions, many studies explore the effect of extreme weather conditions on the construction of houses, little is known in sub-Saharan Africa. This study therefore engages homeowners and various construction workers in a qualitative study to analyze how rainfall affects the building of houses. A total of 75 participants, comprising 20 homeowners and 55 construction workers were purposively selected to share their experiences about the impact of rainfall on the construction of houses using in-depth interviews. The narratives of the participants made several revelations to deepen knowledge on the effect of climatic conditions such as rainfall on housing construction. The study revealed that rainfall causes financial losses to homeowners and creates hazardous work environments for construction workers. Financial losses are encountered through the destruction of building materials, increases in the cost of building materials in the wet season and extra labour costs incurred in carrying out reworks. This challenge posed by extreme rainfall has implications of hindering many prospective homeowners in achieving their aspiration of becoming homeowners.