In a bid to curb the menace of building collapse in Lagos State and other parts of the country, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the Building Collapse Prevention Guild are set to work together.

Towards this end, SON has constituted a six-man committee made up of engineers, architects and lawyers to work with the BCPG following fruitful discussions during a courtesy visit to the Director-General of the organisation, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, earlier in the year.

Collapse of buildings in the Lagos metropolis and some other parts of the country has become worrisome to residents, developers and governments at all levels. In the last few weeks, many buildings have collapsed, killing several people and rendering many others homeless.

Despite the efforts to curb the menace in Lagos, where it is most prevalent, the state government has continued to identify distressed buildings and recently said it had discovered 50 more.

Experts have continued to trade blames, while some say the gaps in the regulatory framework in the industry should be blamed for building collapse in the country, others blame the influx of substandard building materials into the market.

According to the secretary of the SON committee, Mr. Adeoye Onipede, a proposal has been sent to the DG and upon approval, the committee will begin the conduct of integrity tests on building materials, the lack of which has been identified as one of the major causes of structural collapses in the country.

Onipede said, “The proposal before us is to see what mechanisms we can put in place so that when we get to a building, we will be able to carry out integrity test to know whether the building is okay or not. The proposal has been forwarded to the DG; we are still expecting his response.

“So, we want to see how we can fully eliminate or reduce building collapse. When he (DG) approves that, we will know how to work with the BCPG, especially in the area of testing of building materials used in construction in our laboratories.”

He said as a government agency, the SON had the right of administration, and BCPG as non-governmental organisation, would help in identifying defective buildings, adding that one of the things that the committee would concentrate on was building materials.

Onipede said, “We will carry out test and if any building fails the test, our DG has the right and power to seal up any construction project. We can also track the companies bringing in the materials and seal them up as well.

“When these things begin to happen, people will sit up and begin to do what is right, and then, we can have less collapse. And if we are able to identify any building that is not up to the standards, we will send a proposal to the DG and we will carry out integrity test on it, if it fails, we will mark it and work with the appropriate state agencies that will carry out the demolition.”

Reacting to the development, the President, BCPG, Mr. Kunle Awobodu, said it was a laudable move that would afford professionals in the built environment the opportunity to network with SON in finding a lasting solution to the menace of building collapse.

He said, “It is also good for us as we can network with them (SON) all over the country so that professionals in the building industry can easily examine the standard and quality of materials they are using on sites. They can easily call members of the committee, if they are in doubt of the materials they are offered in the market.

“They will also make use of our presence and numerical strength all over the country. It will be a good way of checking substandard materials among those supplying us, for instance, cement and reinforcement bars and other building materials.

“There are many factors that are responsible for the prevalence of substandard building materials in the market; so, in terms of timeline for actualisation, we don’t have a timeline yet, but we will have a communication network with them.”

Awobodu added that members of BCPG had also established contact with distributors in each local government in Lagos and each state in the country, adding that this would be an advantage to both the guild and the committee.

“We will examine all building materials from now on with this collaboration; even up to the quality of tiles and locks will be examined. We will establish some performance index and some tasks, which is a scientific way of solving the problem,” he said.

Speaking on the sustainability of the committee coming from a government organisation, Awobodu said he was hopeful that it would remain committed due to the importance of the task assigned to it.

“Time will tell about the commitment but we just have to be hopeful; at times commitment to government assignment is shallow, but we are hopeful that this one will be useful because of the importance of the assignment and  because we are talking about human life, protecting our profession, and reducing substandard materials, which are everywhere,” he said.

2013-08-05