Built professionals decry recurring incidents of building collapse

THE persistent menace of building collapse at all levels is becoming a major concern to built environment professionals.

The fresh concern by the professionals followed the new cases of collapsed building in Lagos, Abuja and Jos in the last one week.

Some of the professionals are suggesting that in view of the recurring cases of building collapse, they should be allowed to take it as a responsibility to monitor building developments so that they can speak out on time if infractions are detected.

According to them, they would like to take it as their civic responsibility to protect the public against accidents.

Speaking on the social media platform of the Housing Development Advocacy Network, a professional, who identified himself simply as “Hamza”, said the system that advocated adherence to the national building code was faulty, pointing out that professionals have been sidelined on a routine basis.

“The level of compromise by low level contractors and do it yourself patrons is becoming outlandish.

“We need to review everything from proper zoning to architectural and engineering designs,” he said.

According to him, construction of any building type must be supervised by a registered building professional be it at the federal, state or local government levels.

He added that routine building checks and maintenance should be carried out by the authorities on existing structures as well as those under construction.

Hamza said: “We cannot sit back and watch our construction industry disintegrate into chaos because of the proverbial cost implication of putting up a structure of any kind.

“All hands need to come on deck to resolve this persistent menace of building collapse at all levels.”

Founder and Executive Director, Cromwell Professional Services, Mr. Sola Enitan, explained that the solution to building collapse would depend on the compliance and enforcement of the  Nigerian Insurance Commission (NICOM) Act and the Compulsory Insurance of Public Buildings.

He said: ”The interplay and superintence of professionals and experts over every insured public building will bring the spate of collapsed buildings to a halt.

“There’s no shortcut to development, the National Building Code cannot stop building collapse on its own but the enforcement of all its applicable codes across board by professionals in the built environment will.”

According to him, public buildings insurance is key, adding that it coves code compliance, consistent integrity checks, valuation and finance components for insurance risks mitigations.

“Insurance laws will not be obeyed, insurance laws must be enforced. There’s a committee already established that’s trying to find a solution to this.

“What we need is an industry infrastructure, as against, human centred policy enforcement. The technology which will accomplish the desired goals must be driven in such a way that it can be seamlessly complied with and enforced by a collaboration of agencies.”

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