ABSTRACT
A building, once properly constructed is expected
to be in use for a very long time. Although every society has its own problems
and Edo state is not an exception yet the very recent challenges of buildings
collapsing in various locations have been giving the various arms of government
and the people sleepless nights in view of the enormous loss of huge
investments in housing, properties and human life. The major challenge on the
issue of building collapse differ radically from one another on the professionals
involves. This study reviews current challenges in the building industry in
relation to collapse of buildings, loss of lives and properties. Data for the
study were obtained through both primary and secondary means
and through questioners administered to various professionals. The paper examines the increasing incidences
of building collapse in Nigeria. The paper attributes the rising incidents of
building collapse to the use of substandard building materials and incompetent
professionals in construction activities, the refusal of the wider society to
recognize professionalism and pay for the services and the attitude of the
building contractors and other stakeholders as the major problem. The paper
points that the government of Edo state has great roles to play to reduce and
avert this trend.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The Nigerian experience has shown that
buildings collapse have taken a lot of lives and properties hence, the need to
stop the large increase in the number of buildings collapsing in the country.
In the first quarter of 2012, there was a catastrophic collapse of parts of the
Benin Central Hospital that led to loss of lives and injuries. There has been
series of buildings collapse in Nigeria from North to South, East to West.
These ugly incidences that have now become some reoccurring issues all over
Nigeria have sent a lot of Nigerians to their early graves and have equally
turned hundreds to disables and also made them homeless.
Housing is widely ranked among
the most critical factors that determine the quality of life and welfare of
people and societies. It is critical to meeting the social, cultural, economic
and environmental needs of the people and influences the wellbeing, health and
security of both the present and future generations. Housing is therefore
central to the concept of sustainable development, given its complex web of
relationship with the four factors of sustainability, namely social, economic,
cultural and environmental. The question of housing is of paramount concern to
governments across the globe. In Nigeria for instance, all successive
governments since independence highlighted housing as a major priority.
Unfortunately for over 54 years of its independence, Nigeria is still grabbling
with housing crises. The ever mounting crisis in the housing sector of Nigeria
has been in various dimensions, which range from absolute housing unit
shortages, to the emergence and proliferation of the squatter settlements and slums,
the rising cost of housing rent and the building collapse.
Whenever this ugly
monster shows its face stakeholders always look for whom to blame, because this
incidences of collapse buildings has continued to “embarrass” professionals and
stakeholder alike in the construction industry. Most times, the largest
proportion of the blame goes to the institutions that are responsible for the
training of professionals in the building industry. No one is ready to accept
the blame. Infact, they prefer shifting the blames on each other. There should
be urgent need to set in motion a mechanism that would ensure that the
incidences of collapse building is eradicated or reduced to best minimum.
Buildings are designed to
satisfy the functional objectives of safety, serviceability and economy, and
the whole process of building production is capital intensive and can only be
appreciated by a professional Builder (Okereke, 2011). In a related
development, Obiegbu (2012) stated that the construction process involves designing
and implementing a building project from its conception to completion to
correspond with the client’s desire. He further stated that the process
consists of many stages, requiring the joint effort of many parties
(professionals). The large number of participants is the result of the wide
range of expertise needed.
However, it is the work of the architect,
builder and the structural engineer to ensure that the structures will not be
liable to collapse, Failure in design is often attributed to coincidence of
factors rather than just a single cause, a greater attention is being placed on
design errors or inadequacies, where a major factor may lead to the chain of
events leading to collapse of the building. The cause of the above is obviously
structural and is common in state and country, as a result of quacks that
practice as structural engineers, builders and architects. These quacks
often make errors in their assumptions
regarding loading and flexural conditions, coupled with poor detailing and
drafting, carelessness in treatment of constructions, improper location,
inadequate attention to thermal and shrinkage effects; others are inadequate
site investigation, improper planning and absence of professionals to give the
technical input, improper selection of materials and lack of maintenance.
A look at most collapsed buildings, shown
that often; it is the absence of building code and regulation leading to
collapse, mostly due to structural issues. According to Parker Gay, Mac Guire
(1958), negligence and ignorance constitute building collapse in Nigeria.
Majority of owners of collapse buildings are illiterates who are ignorant of
the existence of professionals in the building industry. Failure in building
also occurs as a result of misuse of buildings e.g buildings of different
structural designs serve different purpose; structural design for residential
building is different from industrial building.
Despite the various efforts, the rate of
building collapse to date has continued
unabated. Government at all levels have not shown or displayed concern
for the ugly occurrences. Most designs and plans are good but no monitoring and supervision. Most time,
owners of buildings and other professionals want to cut corners however they can. How can good
quality work be guaranteed when there is no sincerity on the part of those
involved and professionals are not allowed to the jobs.
The cost of building
collapse is enormous, ranging from loss of lives and property to waste of
personal income and national economy (Sani-sidi 2013). The need to arrest this
ugly situation in our nation should be expedient; in this regards, this paper
will x-ray the causes of building collapse in Nigeria and identify the role the
government in curbing it.
It is common to hear incidents
of building failure/collapse in Edo states and major Nigerian cities like
Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Enugu, Kaduna and Ibadan. According to Windapo and
Rotimi, from a total of 91 cases of building failures/collapse in Nigeria
between 1974-2010; 51.6% occurred in Lagos, 18.7% in the South Western states,
8.8% in Abuja—the Federal capital city, 6.5% in the South-South states, 5.5% in
the South Eastern states, 4.4% in both the North Western and North Central
states and 0% in the North Eastern states. They contended that these incidents
are poor construction supervision related. Bamisile asserted that many public
and privately owned buildings in Nigeria lack maintenance thus resulting in
deplorable conditions of structural fabrics and ultimate structural collapse.
Olorunoje noted that failure/collapse of building can be traced to the type of
materials used and quality of workmanship. In Nigeria, it is generally believed
that poor construction supervision, corruption, weak building legislation, poor
structural design, faulty construction, use of low quality materials, hasty
construction, shallow foundation and poor workmanship are the common causes of
most building failures. A number of cases occur during and after the construction
phase of the project.
The building collapse syndrome has taken a
lot of lives and properties in the state and Nigeria as a whole due to:-
(i)
Non-professionals
and quacks involved in the construction process, in the Nigerian experience;
(ii)
The
use of sub-standard materials, components and products;
(iii)
Improper
planning;
(iv)
Absence
of building code/regulations in the industry;
(v)
Lack
of maintenance culture;
(vi)
Inadequate
soil investigation;
(vii)
Poor
detailing and drafting, etc.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.3.1 AIM
(i) The
aim of this research work is to assess the level of involvement of government
and professionals in the built environment on the incidence of collapse of
buildings.
The under-listed objectives were set out in order to
achieve the above aim:
1.3.2 OBJECTIVES
(i)
To
examine the cause of increase of number of the building collapse in Edo state.
(ii)
To identify the major causes of building collapse in Edo state.
(iii)
The proper solution to such causes.
(i)
What
are the causes of building collapse in Edo state?
(ii)
What
are the effects of building collapse in Edo state?
(iii)
What
are the remedial measures or approaches to building collapse Edo state?
(iv)
What
is the role of the government in tackling building collapse?
(v)
What
is the role of building code in tackling building collapse?
(vi)
What
are the roles of various stake holders in tackling building collapse?
This study on the role of government in
eradicating building collapse in Edo state will carefully examine the causes
and effects of building collapse in Edo state and major concentration will be
on public buildings.
(i)
Financial constraint-
Insufficient fund prevented the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for
the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data
collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
(ii)
Time constraint- The researcher simultaneously engaged in the study with other
academic work. This consequently reduced on the time devoted for the research
work.
The following are the significance of this
study:
(i)
The
outcome of this study will educate the general public and the government of the
day on the causes, effect and solutions to the cases of building collapse in
the state.
(ii)
This
research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers
interested in carrying out further research in this field.
1.7
STUDY AREA
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