Sitting on Construction sector time bomb

When was the last time any building inspector approach you at your building project site and said “Please can I see your building permit? What about a visit by officials from the District or Metropolitan Assembly, when you are about to roof it?

No wonder, a little wind or storm and a lot of buildings have their roofs blown off, because they were not properly installed.

This is a country which complains about lack of resources and the need to increase tax revenue and yet officials are not going out to do their job to rake in the needed revenue for the development of the various districts. That is just by the way.

Now focusing on the topic at hand, a careful observation of buildings being put up, especially the story buildings, will reveal a shocking truth. Most of them, like the one that collapsed at Newtown in Accra, over the week-end, are disasters waiting to happen.

I am not a Civil or Structural Engineer but the little structural engineering that l acquired as part of my Mining Engineering course, enables me to observe a building and assess its stability.

Stress must be evenly distributed along a beam for instance, to prevent stress concentration at a point, which can then result in a collapse of a structure.

I saw a picture of the building that collapsed over the week-end and I was not surprised that sad event happened. There is this recent style of raising all the pillars and beams to the lintel levels, before erecting the walls of the structures.

What then happens is that, the beams do not rest directly on the cement blocks forming the walls so that there will be even distribution of stresses. Gaps are crested between the beams and the walls and allows the beams to sag.

This is the cause of the collapse of the buildings occurring all over the country. If building inspectors in the various in the various assemblies did their jobs, a lot of these unacceptable construction practices would have been noticed and stopped and unnecessary deaths and injuries, would have been prevented.

A church building along the road that leads to where I live collapsed and it has been quickly reconstructed. I have my doubts whether investigations were conducted and the causes identified.

The day and time it collapsed, was not a tine for church activities and therefore lives were spared. If the construction has been done without taking into account, factors that caused the first collapse, it is highly likely that the incident will repeat itself.

There should be improvement in the protocols that must be observed when disasters of this nature happens. People without the requisite rescue knowledge rushing to rescue victims must be prevented through appropriate legislation.

Injured victims can easily die if not properly handled from my little first aid knowledge. The security agents must first cordon off the area and only authorised personnel should go in to execute rescue.

Preservation of evidence for proper investigation must be ensured in all such instances of building collapse so that, investigations conducted can identify the real causes of the incident.

This is the only way to ascertain, the real causes that led to the collapse to guide future actions. The issue of punishment as a deterrent must be put into action because some people must answer for this negligence. If we do not do this, l can assure you a few weeks or months from now, we would experience another disaster.

 It is therefore very necessary to set an example in this instance to let it serve as a lesson to those whose responsibility it is to ensure this never again gets repeated.

By Laud Kiss-Mensah