Earthquake and building collapse – the Nigerian situation

Buildings create the enclosure that is required for the protection of human beings from the elements. Such an enclosure also provides security for the inhabitants and their property. The beauty and the class of a town or city are determined by the number and shape of its buildings.

However, with the level of destruction that Nepal witnessed in the aftermath of the April 25, 2015 earthquake of 7.8 on-the-moment magnitude scale, it became obvious that the buildings that adorn the cityscape are deleterious to human safety. These buildings we admire and consider as the symbol of civilization could endanger lives and the higher they are, the more perilous.

Having learnt from the previous experience, an occurrence of 7.3 magnitude in Nepal on May 12, 2015 made inhabitants run out of buildings, keeping their distance from the jolting structures that have become a serious threat to their safety.

Nepal is a poor nation where most of the construction works were substandard, thereby leading to the heavy causality recorded in the massive destruction to infrastructure by the two earthquakes. At least, 8,500 people perished, more than 17,800 people were injured and several buildings collapsed.

When a magnitude 7.0 quake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010 about 220,000 people died, over 300,000 people got injured while about 300,000 homes got damaged. Haiti, also a poor country, had no national building code and hence was notorious for shoddy construction works.

In contrast, when an earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit San Francisco on October 17, 1989, only 63 people died and 3,700 people got injured. Building system, ethics and enforcement of codes are pertinent to reduction of losses in an earthquake occurrence.

The belief that Nigeria is safe from the seismic zone might not be correct based on the available data. The nation experienced earth tremors in 1933, 1939, 1964, 1984, 1990, 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2009. Since geophysical and geological studies have discovered that a fault zone that connects with the Atlantic fracture system exists along Ifewara-Zungeru, hence, Nigeria, especially South-West, is susceptible to earthquake occurrence.

In the area of construction, Nigeria is hardly different from Nepal and Haiti. Prevalence of substandard construction works in Nigeria has been a source of worry to professionals in the nation’s built environment. Quackery has dominated the construction sector while due process is of lip service.

The situation has been made worse by the collapse of stock market, causing the diversion of investment into the real estate by developers, whose major focus is on profit rather than quality. Moreover, since such houses would not be occupied by them, the developers with a business mindset make innocent occupiers become the inheritors of potential danger.

When government has failed in its primary responsibility of safe guarding its citizenry against sharp practices that could endanger their lives, concerned construction professionals could no longer continue to make recommendations that would not be implemented.

Those possessing the unalloyed quest for standard practice and safe built environment established a common front named Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) in the late 2011. Between that time and now, a lot of revelations from building sites through the huge BCPG network of professionals-cum-artisans show that we have a big challenge in our hands.

Many construction sites do not possess building plan approvals due to bureaucracy, high fees, extortion, ignorance etc. Corruption pervades the monitoring system. And efforts to sanitize the system are doused by frustration.

It cannot be business as usual if the incoming administration really believes in a change that will sanitize the system and manifest in the building products. Pretentions in the process of making a change and sentiments will result in wastage of resources, a disappointing motion without a movement. Those that monitor construction sites should be properly counselled, take Hippocratic Oath and be well motivated in order to protect them against temptations and immediate pecuniary gains. They should uphold professional ethics for the sake of safety in the nation’s built environment. Political office holders also should not compromise on enforcement.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The portentous signs are obvious. All efforts must be geared towards saving the nation from enormous calamity in the event of earthquake in future. Construction of bungalows should be encouraged at places where standard in higher structures could not be guaranteed.

Design and construction of earthquake resistant buildings that possess adequate lateral load resisting systems should be promoted. A reliable mechanism for construction inspection should be instituted, if possible by outsourcing. Developers should be made to employ adequate number of qualified building professionals.

Being proactive today is cheaper and saves huge losses in the future. Let the government invest in prevention by demolishing defective buildings for regeneration and ensure quality control of materials and labour force on sites, guided by prompt implementation of the National Building Code.

Kunle Awobodu