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By Okpakpor Nelly
Delta State Government has restated the need for property developers to get necessary approvals before commencing any building in the state.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Urban Renewal, Mrs. Charity Ehimen, stated this while meeting with the site engineer of a collapsed building under construction at Amachai, Okpanam in Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state.
The meeting which was held in her office at the Prof. Chike Edozien Secretariat in Asaba also had senior management staff of the ministry in attendance.
Ehime expressed disappointment over the unwholesome attitude of some owners of construction sites, engaging quacks and unqualified building engineers who used low quality materials to erect buildings in the state.
She said such unguided development had made the job of town planners difficult in the state, stressing the need for property owners to engage professionals as site engineers and supervisors.
She added that such nonchalant attitude in erecting buildings was endangering the lives of people.
She further disclosed that any building without the requisite approvals from the ministry before the commencement of erecting it would be demolished in the state, particularly the collapsed one in question which neither got approvals not properly supervised in the course of building it.
While sympathising with the property developer over the collapsed building, Ehimen also disclosed that all expenses incurred in the demolition process would be at the expense of the building engineer.
An engineer in the Ministry, Mr. Ejohwomu Mudia, who had earlier presented the report on the findings as to the immediate cause of the collapsed building, noted that the engineer did not comply with any standard procedure in building construction.
The report indicted the site engineer for using substandard materials, lack of effective supervision and building designs and approval before commencement of construction work as well as no post approval monitoring of the project.
A post mortem report of the consultant, Engineer Zipquant Int- services, also observed defects in the structural works which included footing columns and beams sizes that were far less than design provision and reinforcement elements fell short of design provision.
It was also observed that the site engineers used local stones (sand stone), the mixture of which was defective and unjustifiable.
