Building construction is a high risk activity that must be effectively
controlled by building owners and effectively regulated by the Government. The
construction industry remains a dangerous business, accounting as one of the
major causes of fatalities in Lagos State.
Over the years, Lagosian have witnessed
consistent building collapsed leading to fatalities, litigations, regulatory
actions, pains, injuries, delayed schedules, bad reputations and loss of
properties etc. Last week (March 8,
2016), a five-storey building still under construction at Horizon 1, Lekki Gardens, Ikate, Lagos collapsed killing 35 people. This of course is a
reminder of the six-story building (guest house) collapsed belonging to the
Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) at the Ejigbo area of Lagos on
September 12, 2014, in which 116 persons, mostly South Africans, lost their
lives.
As expected, there has been various reactions by
the Lagos State Government to these incidents. The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, dismissed some affected officers
indicted of negligence under the Public Service Rule 040401.
It is of
utmost importance that persons in position of authority within the parastatals
in charge of building control discharged their duties professionally and where
a breached in duty by a government officer has been identified, appropriate
disciplinary actions must be taken as shown by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. Nonetheless,
we must also be aware that issuing of authorised building permit and sacking of
officials due to negligence is not sufficient to guarantee reduction in
building collapse in Lagos State. We must now begin to look into a sustainable
strategy by enacting a proactive construction specific health and safety
legislation in addition to building regulation. Lagos Sate government must now
shift from solely traditional compliance to building permit to a more robust
and sustainable construction health and safety management.
The
regulations should identify all duty holders within a building construction
project and clearly stipulates individual legal duties raging from the building
owners to the designers, contractors, subcontractors and other persons involved
on the project. The law should apply to the whole construction process on all construction
projects, from concept to completion.
A good reference would be the Construction
Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2015 in the UK which clearly states the
duty holders on construction project and placed legal obligations on them to
ensure that construction is carried out safely in United Kingdom. For example
the regulation places a duty on commercial clients (Owners of the building construction
project) to make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including making
sure other duty holders are appointed as appropriate and that sufficient time
and resources are allocated onto the project.
The
Regulations aim to make sure the building construction project is safe to
build, use and maintain and offers good value. This regulations does not
nullify the UK Building Regulations but rather emphasised the importance of safety
in construction. As any builder knows, projects start well before ground is broken. Therefore,
safety should be part of the building process right from the very start.
In working
toward establishing a safer workplace and promoting building safety, government
building regulatory officers must now work closely with building owners,
designers, contractors and project planners to determine the most effective
risk management strategies before a project begins and while it’s being built.
For health
and safety to be taken seriously on a building project, the client’s
commitments must be key and visible. Safety must start with the building owner
or client and should be their core values. The clients might show this by
appointing competent principal designer and contractors, allocating sufficient
time and resources at the planning stage of the project as well as providing relevant
information to all persons/contractors on the project.
When it comes
to safety, nobody works alone. Therefore, designers (Organisations or individuals who as part of a business, prepare or
modify designs for a building, product or system relating to construction work)
engaged for a building project in Lagos State must ensure that when
preparing or modifying designs, consideration is given to eliminating, reducing
or controlling all foreseeable risks that may arise during construction,
maintenance and use of a building once it is built.
It is
important that an initial assessment is carried out by the building regulators
at the pre-planning stage of a building project since every project is first
built on paper. Safety begins with pre-planning, therefore the Lagos State Building
Regulatory Officer (LSBRO) must check that the methods to be used for the
building construction is understood at the pre-planning stage and confirmed to
be safe right from substructure, superstructure to fit out. The LSBRO must
ensure that controls to mitigate any foreseeable risks are integrated into the
health and safety plan and may require evidence from a client that the designer
has taken all reasonable measures to eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable
risks that may arise during construction, maintenance and use of the client’s
building once it is built. In addition, the LSBRO should be visible on site and
should have the legal backing to be able to use his discretion to require from
the contractor on site a copy of the construction phase plan.
Also, the
client should be able to provide evidence that a contractor/ subcontractor’s
safety history and performance was considered during pre-qualification and not
just costs including provision of contractors’ HSE requirements to subcontractors
during competitive bidding.
Safety is not
simply common sense. Workers need to be trained on the applicable regulations,
hazards identification, and how to work safely including how to deal with
emergencies. All these would help improve hazard spotting and reporting amongst
the workforce. Hence, where a worker has recognised a substandard material or
equipment to be used on the project that has potential to cause collapse of the
building during or after construction, the worker as a result of his training would
be able to raise alarm and/or report such to a nominated person within the
project team who would then take appropriate action.
More also,
the Lagos State Government should have a list of registered HSE Consultants who
would have gone through an accreditation process for ascertaining their construction
health and safety qualifications, sector experience and ability to offer
competent advise with a minimum of 3 years practical experience on building
construction. This will ensure that
those who offer advice to duty holders have a good understanding of building
construction health and safety risks and how such risks should be managed,
controlled or eliminated so far as reasonably practicable. However, where
non-compliance on the part of any of the duty holders has been detected, the
LSBRO should be able to act and initiate prosecution.
Lastly, the
implementation of the suggestions and/or recommendations mentioned above on new
and existing projects would provide a long term solution to building collapse
in Lagos, as building constructed within the guidance mentioned in this article
can be guaranteed to be safer than those built under the present existing
conditions.
Engr.
Kayode V. Fowode CMIOSH, RMaPS, M.CSSE, MNSE
Chartered
Health and Safety Practitioner
Managing
Consultant
Kevron
Consulting Limited
8, Olanrewaju
Street, Off Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +234
13424578, +2347084152143, +2348182170991
No comments:
Post a Comment