With no fewer than 149 distressed buildings identified, out of which 40 have been removed and 38 others further marked for controlled demolition, Lagos State government is truly rising to the challenge of proactive measures to check the high incidence of building collapse and their attendant loss of lives and materials.
Hundreds of lives and properties of unquantifiable value have been lost over the years to recurring cases of building collapse in Nigeria with majority of the cases happening in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the country. There has been an increase in the number of collapsed buildings in Nigeria in the last 15 years.
Some measures adopted in Lagos such as the forfeiture of collapsed property to the government and testing of building materials by an authorized agency seemed to have done little in stemming the tide.
According to Sola Adeigbe, the general manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), a total of 1,104 buildings were sealed from June and October 2016 across Lagos as a result of defective or illegal construction.
Analysts and stakeholders in the built industry have blamed the collapse of buildings on a number of factors. These include poor quality building materials such as iron rods, cement, blocks; engagement of quacks, unprofessional and unethical practices by developers, weak regulation by the government, corruption among others.
As a way forward, they have advocated stricter punitive measures to be meted to persons found culpable each time a building caves in, including the withdrawal of recognition to any qualified engineer who handled a collapsed property.
On the strength of such arguments, a number of measures over time have been adopted by the government with the active collaboration of some professional bodies in the built industry, including the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE). The government still in search of a solution to the problem established the Lagos State Building Control Agency and empowered it test and certify materials to be used at any construction site within the state.
While this has brought about some level of success with respect to new construction sites, the challenge has remained that several buildings built decades ago stand precariously across the states, with thousands of the citizens still occupying them.
Checks show reveal that majority of such houses are located within the Lagos Island, and understandably so. Most of the houses in this part of the state known as ‘Central Lagos’ were built in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and over time have seriously depreciated, with little or no maintenance.
According to Rotimi Ogunleye, the commissioner for physical planning and urban development, apart from encouraging owners and occupants of such buildings to report to the authority for necessary action, government itself is now deploying officials to the field to identify such buildings and mark them for demolition.
Of a total of 149 earlier identified across the state, 40 have been brought down and occupants evacuated, 38 more marked for removal in the next phase of the exercise while others will follow in due course in a proactive strategy to ensure that lives are no longer exposed to the danger posed by such building as may have been the case in the past.
“It is gratifying to note that there has been a significant reduction in occurrences of building collapse in the state. A total of 149 distressed buildings were identified at different locations, out of which 40 have so far been demolished in the last one year.
Asides this, efforts are also been intensified at discouraging all forms of illegal developments and contraventions. We’re doing this with the collaboration of stakeholders as well as intensive post-construction audit of buildings by the Lagos State Building Control Agency.
Giving a further insight on how the government is curbing the illegality, he said “we embarked on intensive audit through the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory, and in the process, visited the 57 local governments and local council development areas of the state to inspect both ongoing construction sites and completed buildings suspected to be distressed.
“Consequently, 1,842 sites were visited; 1,392 test advice notices were served and information on buildings identified as distressed were forwarded to LASBCA, said Ogunleye.
