Town Planner Proffers Solutions To Building Collapse

Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Abia State chapter, Stephen Nwazue said strict application of standard building regulations will reduce building collapse in the country.

Nwazue stated this in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, yesterday.

He also blamed both the developers and the contractors for most of the incidents of building collapse across the country and accused them of embarking on building without approval by the relevant authorities, use of substandard materials and quacks, cutting corners, blocking of water channels and congestion of spaces within the site.

The chairman noted with concern that some buildings are erected under high tension electric cable or near railway lines which he said expose both the users and the society to various manners of life-threatening hazards.

The expert, who argued that consequences of flaunting the regulations are enormous, carpeted some of the authorities or their agents of being complicit in the ugly development out of their selfish interest.

Nwazue advocated outright demolition of such buildings without compensation as penalty for breach of the regulations no matter who is involved in the construction or the owner to serve as deterrent to others.

He also called on governments at all levels and stakeholders in the construction industry to rise up in checking the menace, adding that it is an ill wind that comes with multiple consequences including loss of lives and property.