Nigerian engineers intensify efforts to tackle building collapse

According to Punch, the Nigerian Institution of Safety Engineers said it had intensified efforts aimed at preventing disasters and ensuring safety awareness, especially as it pertains fire incidents, flooding and building collapse across the country.

Addressing journalists in Lagos, the pioneer National Chairman of NISE, Abiodun Oyedepo, said the NISE was not formed to compete with other safety bodies and agencies but to collaborate with them as an engineering body to improve on safety.

Oyedepo urged engineers and persons not registered as engineers but were involved in engineering-related works to take advantage of NISE.

According a Oyedepo, people wonder if there are no engineers in Nigeria in view of the disasters relating to fire, flooding and building collapses in the country.

To fulfil its aims and objectives, he said NISE would hold a conference with the theme, ‘Assuring public safety in Nigeria: The roles of engineers.’

The Chairman of the NISE Conference Planning Committee, Seun Faluyi, said, “Rainfall is not avoidable but flooding is preventable.  Engineers know what to do if you want to prevent flooding even where there is much rainfall.”

Faluyi said the same would apply to building collapse, “where you design buildings and factor in safety during the construction, collapses can be prevented.”

He said safety was better assured when qualified engineers were actively involved, adding that NISE would work in collaboration with regulatory agencies, especially in the areas of capacity development programmes and addressing building collapse.

Regulatory bodies, he observed, were not sufficiently staffed, saying that the institution would fill the gap.

The Secretary of the Planning Committee, Kayode Fowode, in his contribution, said the body was sensitizing the public that housing construction supervisors  in every state should take proper measures during construction to prevent building collapse.

He said that though the Lagos State Safety Commission required that engineers approve building drawings, there would also be training courses organised for registered builders in the state to help them to identify problems during construction and address them promptly so as to prevent disaster.

Source: Punch