National Housing Programme Designed to Integrate Persons Living with Disability — Minister

The National Housing Programme (NHP) is also designed for the integration of persons living with disabilities through inclusive building designs with ramps for mobility and interaction, an official says. The Minister of State II for Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Suleiman Zarma, made the fact known on Tuesday during an inspection of construction at NHP site in Ado-Ekiti. Zarma in the company with some ministry officials was on an assessment tour of Federal Government roads and housing projects in the South-West Geo-Political Zone. The NHP is designed to suit different categories of people, including persons with disability, through provision of ramps to ease movement in the buildings. But in Ado-Ekiti, the structures were designed in such a way that persons living with disability are restricted to the ground floor.

During the inspection, the minister said that people living with disabilities should not be restricted to the ground floor and should be allowed to interact freely. “In the world over now, people living with disabilities are integrated without being segregated. So there is no point to say that you have them only on the ground floor, that is another phase of segregation. “They should be able to go to all the floors and to all the levels of the building; they should be accommodated to carry out their activities. Zarma, a surveyor, urged officials in-charge of NHP in Ekiti, to ensure that designs suitable for persons with disability were captured very well in the next phase of NHP. “On the staircases, there will be strips or ramps that will cater for their movement. “They should not segregate the people with disabilities by restricting them to the ground floor; they should be allowed to go up and interact,’’ he noted.

The NHP Team Leader in the state, Mr Segun Dossou, noted that due to an initial setback of relocation, the 70 housing units being constructed began late but was nearing completion. The architect assured the minister that the design for the second phase which would commence soon would go beyond the ground floor and extend to others to accommodate the people living with disabilities. He said all the contractors were mobilised and reported to the site except one that was handling two number blocks of three bedrooms who was yet to report for site handing over. According to him, the contractor has been served a warning letter to do so with a view to commencing the process of determining his contract.

“The water infrastructure contract is already at 80 per cent completion with the drilling of four boreholes, installation of ground and overhead tanks and construction of water treatment plant. “The road infrastructure contract progress include completion of site survey, setting out of roads, cutting and bending of re-enforcement are on-going with view to commencing concrete works on the drainage. “External electrification progress includes the completion of erection of poles and construction of housing for transformer sub-stations while cable line installation is on-going.

Dossou said that the project also created jobs and wealth for not only the building professionals and contractors but 1,500 skilled and unskilled artisans. The representative of the contractors, Mr Raji Kehinde, also appealed to the ministry to make funds faster to avoid delay in the completion of the project. One of the indigenes of the locality, Mr Femi Adetifa, expressed joy over the housing development in the state and called for continuity by the Federal Government. The minister also inspected the on-going construction of N3.3 billion Federal Secretariat Complex, located at New Iyin Road, Ado-Ekiti, by Messrs Deux Project Ltd. with 20 per cent of the job completed.

Source: (NAN)

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