Stakeholder Decries Poor Implementation Of Building

A stakeholder in the
housing sector, Stanley Owhonda has expressed concern over the poor implementation of the 2006 National Building Code which attempted to address some challenges in the housing sector.
Owhonda, a structural engineer by training who was speaking in a housing stakeholders forum in Port Harcourt noted that the National building code of 2006 was made to “address the area of pre-design, Design, construction and post construction or occupation.
“The national Building Code which was adopted in August 2006 was intended to regulate and sanitise the building industry, has for some time now been faced with problems ranging from the absence of planning of our major towns and cities to lack of maintenance as well as use of non professionals.”
According to him, the incessant building failures and collapse, fire inferno, built environment abuse and use of banned products and materials for building have constituted major challenges in the sector.
He said “while the government must enact laws and make regulations to guide those who build, the professionals in the building industry must ensure that the implementation of such laws /codes achieve the desired result technically, adding that it is the duty of the professionals to ensure quality health, safety and general welfare.”
The structural engineer commended the Federal Government for fulfilling as aspect of its obligation by providing and adopting the National Building Code, pointing out that it is incumbent on other stakeholders to take appropriate steps to domesticate the provisions.
Owhonda therefore, urged all the stakeholders to work in synergy towards making the housing sector development in the country very realistic.
He also noted that Rivers State is the economic hub of oil and gas business and a major commercial centre in Nigeria, which has contributed to overwhelming population density, especially within Port Harcourt, where demand for housing has become very high and expensive.

Corlins Walter