Sustainable infrastructure: Professionals harp on importance of building maintenance

Professionals in the built environment meet in Lagos last week on how buildings can be sustained and enjoy value increase at any point in time.

Olayinka Omotosho, a surveyor and guest speaker at an event, organised by the Building Collapse Prevention Guilds (BCPG), Ikeja-Onigbongbo Chapter, in Lagos, said construction company is considered to be the barometer of a nation’s economy which cannot be over estimated.

According to him, over the years it has become important to understand the essentials of building maintenance. This can be attributed to the rising number of building collapse in the country, coupled with the question of when and which professional in the built environment has the greatest role to play in building maintenance.

He said many problems that mar the physical state of buildings in Nigeria could be said to have started in the early stage of construction, meaning that they could have been avoided in those early stages of production.

“In the light of this and in resolving the issues of building maintenance practice in Nigeria, it is important to correct the perspective of building maintenance as not just a post construction practice. This implies a more inclusive view of maintenance into the early stages of construction, starting from its inception has to be imbibed.

Omotosho noted that the successful completion of any building depends on a lot of key factors, few of which are as important as the relationship of all professionals involved in the process, saying: “since the activities in terminal stages of a building project is a role the Estate Surveyor occupied, and his effectiveness in this role would be dependent on the quality of work done in the preceding stages.

He, therefore, recommended that it is factual, the influx of substandard building materials in the market, this should be contained and controlled by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), hence, the collaboration between the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) should be strengthened.

“Federal Government should harmonise the National Building code and Building Efficiency Guidelines. If the National Building code is implemented with consistent enforcement, incidence to building collapse could become history in Nigeria and the BCPG should organize more workshops, seminars and other enlightenment programmes at different cells nationwide”, said Omotosho.

Earlier in his key note address, General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Dotun Lasoju, an engineer, advised estate surveyors not to shy on their responsibilities by telling the developers the need for maintenance of their estates.

In her opening speech, Coordinator of Ikeja-Onigbongbo Cell, Zulaikha Bolarinwa, while urging the professional bodies to strive and purge out quarks from the system, added that by cooperation, they stand to perform their roles very well.